About thirty representatives of non-profit organisations, national and local representatives and journalists were invited to participate to a site visit on the theme of the use of aluminium in building. The event exhibited the projects with innovative technologies integrating aluminium and minimising environmental impacts. It also allowed to open the dialogue with political representatives and non-profit organisation on the environmental issues of the use of aluminium.

“Aluminium and sustainable transport: the example of the TGV Duplex”, November 2001, La Rochelle, France

The objective of this event was to open a dialogue with political party representatives, environmentalist organisations and officials on the role of aluminium in the development of sustainable mass transportation. The event included the visit of the ALSTOM factory of La Rochelle where the TGV wagons are assembled.

Plant visit, November 2001, Vlissingen, The Netherlands

Representatives of French and Dutch NGOs (WWF France, Friends of the Earth France, Wereld Natuur Fonds, Zeeuwse Milieu Federatie) were invited to visit the production plant of Vlissingen, Netherlands. The visit focused on the integration of the plant in its environment, on energy consumption and gas emissions.

This visit enabled many exchanges between representatives of the environmental world and the aluminium industry. It gave the opportunity to point out the initiatives of the aluminium industry to reduce its impacts on environment.

Plant Visit – Semi fabrication, recovery and recycling - Strabourg, France, April 2001

Members of the European Commission, in charge of environment and non ferrous metal issues, were invited to a discovering journey of the Aluminium industry that led them from Brussels to Strasbourg where they visited the Neuf Brisach plant.

The Neuf Brisach plant produces semi-fabricated rolled products for the beverage can and automotive industries. This represents a total production of 348 000 tons of aluminium rolled products and 1400 employees. Representatives of the European Commission were shown the various rolling processes (hot rolling and cold rolling) and were particularly awarded on the in-house scrap recycling process.

This trip also included the visit of the Municipal Waste Incinerator in Colmar , which gave a typical example of an incinerator with energy recovery for the surrounding urban demand.

Finally, the group visited the “Aluminium Rheinfelden” recycling plant. The group were shown how the recycling plant operates an environmentally friendly pyrolysis kiln for decoating aluminium/organic composite materials from laminated foils, used beverage cans and other post consumer scrap.