Best B2B Partnership Award – Novelis and Jaguar Land Rover were recognised for their partnership in REALCAR at the 2015 Ethical Corporation Responsible Business Awards in London, where both companies were honoured with the Best Business to Business (B2B) Partnership Award. Novelis was also awarded the Best Private Company Award for its overarching work in sustainability and recycling.
REALCAR (REcycled ALuminium CAR) was a project to develop a new aluminium alloy for use in vehicle manufacture. Innovate UK played a key role in enabling this work by funding an initial research and development project. Innovate UK runs funding competitions to help develop business ideas, these competitions are open to all UK based companies and, if eligible, can provide funding of from £5,000 to £10 million.
Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturing business and a world leader in the use of automotive aluminium. Using aluminium in cars creates a lightweight yet strong solution that enables vehicle mass and fuel consumption reductions, infinite recyclability and lower levels of personal carbon-rated taxation.
While aluminium is infinitely recyclable, closed-loop recycling has been limited in its use and scale. So, as part of a multi-stakeholder partnership with initial grant funding from Innovate UK, Novelis and Jaguar Land Rover worked together. The two companies have created a new automotive aluminium alloy that accepts increasing amounts of recycled aluminium automotive scrap. The newly developed alloy is now used on the Jaguar XE and XJ.
The winning project needed to show clear environmental, social and commercial benefits. The judges commented:
“This project has great commercial impact tackling a major issue with measurable impact and values, very scalable for other industries; new and unique. Multiple outcomes have emerged from a single B2B partnership – including suppliers – that stands above the rest.”
This innovation helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the production phase. It also supports a circular economy. Recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy and a lighter car reduces vehicle exhaust emissions. This has the benefit of conserving energy and other natural resources.
