About this Report...

Like most companies today, Alcan is striving to be transparent and accountable to the many publics with which we interact. We are committed to the principles of sustainability and working diligently to ensure that we are a net contributor to the environmental, economic, and social wellbeing of our communities.

These commitments are not new for Alcan. They are reflected in our corporate Code of Conduct, first published in 1978. We realize, though, that in order for our publics to assess how well we are meeting our commitments, they need to know more about what we do, how we do it, and how we plan to improve our performance. We have also come to realize that the more our publics – or stakeholders – know about our challenges, the more likely they are to participate in identifying mutually beneficial solutions.

This report is our first attempt in B.C. to provide, in a single package, a large amount of information about our performance in the three areas generally considered to be the pillars of sustainability: environmental stewardship, economic contribution, and social responsibility. Many companies call this kind of reporting "Sustainability" or "Triple Bottom Line" reporting. We have refrained from assigning those labels to this document for two reasons. First, this is a regional report, dealing only with the power generation and aluminum production operations of the Alcan Primary Metal Group in British Columbia. Second, we believe we need additional input from our stakeholders about the quality and quantity of the information we’re presenting here in order to define what this report eventually becomes. We intend to meet with stakeholder groups over the coming months to seek their views on how we can improve our reporting process.

On behalf of the management of Alcan’s B.C. Operations, I invite you to review this first effort and to share your thoughts with us about how we might make subsequent reports more useful to you. We welcome your comments by telephone (1-800-94-ALCAN) or by e-mail alcan.in.bc.mag@alcan.com.