In addition to climate change and energy consumption, our most important environmental challenges are related to waste production, emissions and biodiversity.
Our ambition is to reduce our environmental impact to a minimum throughout the entire life cycle of our products.
Air and water emissions from Hydro's production are already limited as a result of major improvements during the 1980s and 1990s. There is still room for improvement however and efforts in this area have a high priority.
In 2010 we had five breeches of emission permits - two at the same plant. In chronological order:
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Grevenbroich, Germany
An undesirable concentration of a limited number of pollutants exceeded the legal limit and was discharged.
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St. Augustine, USA
Violation of regulations for waste water. Waste water discharged from an inspection instrument for air pollution had elevated metal levels.
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Phoenix, USA
Discharge of water, oil and lubricants exceeded the municipal limit.
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Årdal, Norway
Emissions of dust and fluoride exceeded the monthly emission limits.
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St. Augustine, USA
The plant exceeded the maximum chromium discharge level, four times in the course of a year.
