• Q. 1 When was EAA established and why?
• Q. 2 What are the main challenges the EAA and the European aluminium industry are facing today?
• Q. 3 What is the EAA’s vision and mission in terms of sustainability?
• Q. 4 How do aluminium applications and products help reduce carbon emissions?
• Q. 5 GHG emissions are a key indicator concerning environmental sustainability. How is the industry tackling the issue?
• Q. 6 What are the key drivers for emissions reduction?
• Q. 7 Why does your industry support a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach to products?
• Q. 8 Why is your industry favouring End of Life recycling vs. the recycled content concept as an indicator of recycling efficiency?
• Q. 9 How much energy is saved by aluminium recycling compared to primary production?
• Q. 10 If recycling saves more than 95% of energy when compared to the primary production; can it replace the primary production?
• >> Q. 11 More and more focus is set by policymakers on energy efficiency, eco-design, eco-labelling and Green Public Procurement. How is the aluminium industry positioning itself?
• Q. 12 Why is weight reduction one of the most efficient means to reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles?
• Q.13 Is it true that light cars are not as safe as heavier cars?
• Q. 14 Recycling rates for the automotive and building sectors are very high (95% and 92% respectively), while average aluminium packaging recycling rate stands at 55%.
• Q. 15 How to combine competitiveness and environmental “performance”? Beyond current activities, what do you see as future opportunities for fostering the industry’s sustainability?

More and more focus is set by policymakers on energy efficiency, eco-design, eco-labelling and Green Public Procurement. How is the aluminium industry positioning itself?

As a general rule, optimisation of the whole building should always have the priority on requirements at building product level. Requirements at building product level should be restricted to small-scale renovations, i.e. to the cases where a holistic optimisation does not usually happen. It is often quoted that more than 40% of windows in the EU are still singleglazing, and suggested that applying eco-design or labelling would facilitate the market uptake of more efficient building components. This is only partially true because, in many cases, it is not the information on the performance of building products that is missing, but rather the upfront investment costs that represents a barrier to their use. Appropriate national and European financial support is needed for the refurbishment of existing buildings and for the construction of energy efficient new buildings.