BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL), a recognized sustainability leader in the global packaging industry, is honoring seven of its 58 global manufacturing plants with the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award for making a substantial impact toward Ball's sustainability goals, both inside the plant and within their communities, in 2014.

The annual award recognizes one plant in each region of Ball's global beverage can business and its global food and household products business for the best overall sustainability improvement, as well as greatest impact in their local community.

The most sustainable plants of 2014 and examples of their operational achievements from last year include:

Global Metal Beverage Packaging

• Wallkill, New York (Beverage Cans, North America): Reduced its total recordable incident rate by 66 percent.
• Belgrade, Serbia (Ball Packaging Europe): Reduced its total waste to landfill by 6 percent.
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Ball Asia Pacific): Improved its natural gas efficiency by 20 percent.
• Alagoinhas, Brazil (Latapack-Ball): Reduced the total amount of waste generated per unit of production by 5 percent.

Global Metal Food and Household Products Packaging

• Baltimore, Maryland (Metal Food and Household Products): Improved its electricity efficiency by 15 percent.
• Bellegarde, France (Global Impact Extruded Aluminum Packaging): Improved its water efficiency by more than 18 percent.
• Beaurepaire, France (Global Slugs): Improved its natural gas efficiency by 11 percent.

"Sustainability remains at the core of maximizing value in all of Ball's businesses and our commitment to sustainability has never been stronger," said John A. Hayes, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We continue to set aggressive goals and, thanks to disciplined execution at all levels, made significant progress toward achieving them last year. Congratulations to the 2014 Hoover Sustainability Award winning plants and our employees for their persistent dedication to our long-term sustainability vision."

Year over year, each of Ball's plants around the world is evaluated based on performance in various categories, including the reduction of electricity, natural gas, water usage, waste and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as overall safety record, sharing of best practices, local support of packaging collection and recycling, charitable contributions and volunteerism.

In 2011, Ball established the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award in honor of the company's former chairman, president and CEO, who was a key driver in the development of Ball's formal sustainability program.

Ball's sustainability management, performance and goals are regularly reviewed by third parties. Recent acknowledgments include: inclusion in Dow Jones' World and North America Sustainability Indices for the second consecutive year, and recognition as industry leader in the Containers and Packaging category; ranked third among the 500 largest U.S. companies on overall environmental performance by Newsweek; listing in the international FTSE4Good index for five consecutive years; and inclusion in the MSCI Global Sustainability Indexes, the STOXX Global ESG Leader Indices and the Euronext Vigeo US 50 index.

In May, Ball will release updated, third-party verified sustainability data on www.ball.com. For more information about Ball's ongoing sustainability efforts, please visit www.ball.com/sustainability.

About Ball Corporation
Ball Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2014 sales of $8.6 billion. For more information, visit www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key risks and uncertainties are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at www.sec.gov. Factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product demand fluctuations; availability/cost of raw materials; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; crop yields; competitive activity; failure to achieve productivity improvements or cost  reductions; mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation, power and supply chain influence; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; and changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the company as a whole include those listed plus: changes in senior management; regulatory action or issues including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding the U.S. government budget, sequestration and debt limit; reduced cash flow; ability to achieve cost-out initiatives; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful acquisitions and divestitures, including, with respect to the proposed Rexam PLC acquisition, the effect of the announcement of the acquisition on our business relationships, operating results and business generally; the occurrence of any event or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of our definitive agreement with Rexam PLC in respect of the acquisition; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us related to the definitive agreement with Rexam PLC; and the failure to satisfy conditions to completion of the acquisition of Rexam PLC, including the receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

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SOURCE Ball Corporation