DUBAL takes two accolades in 2012 GAC Awards

Excellent progress towards a corporate goal of ‘zero harm to the people and the environment’ has earned Dubai Aluminium, DUBAL, two accolades in the inaugural 2012 Gulf Aluminium Council, GAC, Environment Health and Safety Awards, which were announced during the 16^th Arab International Aluminium Conference, ARABAL 2012, held in Qatar from 20 to 22 November this year. 

An entirely state-owned corporation that operates the world’s largest aluminium smelter using pre-bake anode technology, DUBAL has an annual smelter production capacity of approximately 1,025,000 tonnes, and has produced more than one million tonnes of molten primary aluminium per year since 2010. The only smelter in the Gulf region to receive two 2012 GAC awards, DUBAL received the following accolades: 

1^st place in the Environment category – Recognizing the company’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through diverse initiatives, including energy optimization projects in Smelter Operations; reduced CO₂ emissions from the Power Plant due to the GTX Project; and process efficiency improvements in Smelter Operations that have reduced perfluorocarbon, PFC, emissions. Together, these initiatives resulted in a reduction in CO₂eq emissions of approximately 0.71 million tonnes in 2011, compared to 2009; and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity from 10.08 tonne CO₂eq /tonne aluminium in 2009 to 9.38 tonne CO₂eq /tonne aluminium in 2011.

2^nd place in the Health & Safety category – Recognizing the company’s 2011 Beat the Heat and Be Safe summer programme, which sustained DUBAL’s record of zero lost working days due to occupational heat-related illnesses; contributed to a 36 per cent decline in the total number of recordable injuries in the summer months; and reduced heat illnesses by 73 per cent. 

“These awards confirm that DUBAL is a regional leader in the environmental and social pillars of sustainability,” says Abdulla Kalban, President & CEO. “Our on-going quest for excellence in all that we do is based on a continuous improvement strategy that includes benchmarking against the best in the world. It is therefore most gratifying for DUBAL to have been rated so highly by GAC, which has introduced these awards as a mechanism for sharing best practices so as to improve the efficiency of the aluminium industry in the Gulf Co-operative Council region.”