CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT

Every company has a business model based on the goods and services they provide. Some of these goods and services are sustainable; some lend themselves to being modified to becoming more sustainable; while others are intrinsically not sustainable. Due to the global interest for and concern in conducting business sustainably, companies are searching for ways to make their business more sustainable, more environmentally and socially friendly, and more sensitive to the long-term needs of their communities and nations.

However, at Virotec Global Solutions we have a long history of corporate sustainability and social responsibility. In fact, our company was established on the basis of principles at the heart of current sustainable management and practice. We pride ourselves in not only conducting ourselves in ways which are the most sustainably responsible and socially ethical, but at the very core of our business; our technology solutions for environmental remediation and waste treatment are themselves built on long-term sustainable methods and principles.

For example, our technologies are based on a “waste-to-resource” model, where we treat the waste of one industry to solve the environmental and waste problems of other industries, thereby creating a loop of sustainability between industries. Because we only use reused, recycled and retreated raw materials in our products, we reduce the amount of “waste” we and other companies produce to zero; ours is a zero waste business model.

Moreover, we reduce the waste of other industries by transforming waste into a valuable and viable resource, which can then be used in other industries and in the environment. Our practices always follow the strictest of regulatory codes, as well as the strictest codes of ethical practice and behaviour.

Our core sustainability values are:

• We care deeply about the environment;
• We care deeply about the health of people, animals, plants, soil, water and air;
• We want to positively impact as many people, environments, sites, processes and communities as possible though our efforts;
• We believe that we have a unique and important contribution to make to the future of our customers and the markets we serve;
• We only apply reused, retreated and recycled materials, and do not generate any waste in our technology solutions;
• We transform the waste of industry into a valuable resource which can be used in other industries; our applications lead to a benign and/or reusable product;
• We reduce and/or eliminate alumina refinery waste residues, which constitute the largest volume of industrial waste in the world at more than 150 million tonnes per year and 2.5 billion tonnes in global stockpiles;
• We close the loop of alumina refinery waste residues such that processes create cyclical materials flow (i.e., use of waste for benefit or “zero waste”) and the reclassification of alumina refinery waste residues so that they can be either subsequently reused or stored in a “non-hazardous” form;
• We have developed ways of accounting for and managing “end-of-pipe” costs and environmental and social costs (“externalities”) associated with alumina refinery waste residues use;
• We create a “community of practice” within and around the sustainability interface that understands the functioning of natural and commercial systems and the impact on them by the activities of alumina refinery waste residue stakeholders;
• We reconfigure commerce by developing delivery systems for environmental treatment services and social value instead of merely delivering materials; and
• We engage external organizations to create policies, social receptivity and market incentives that encourage sustainable practices associated with refinery residue management and reuse.

Because our company is at the forefront of sustainable management and practice, we have developed a long-term, global “Sustainability Framework” for the industries we serve, including the alumina industry. View the details of the Sustainability Framework here.