BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is recognizing six of its 90 global manufacturing plants with the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award for their considerable progress toward Ball's sustainability and business goals, including making the can the most sustainable package in the supply chain.

The annual award recognizes one plant in each division of Ball's Global Beverage Packaging and Food & Aerosol Packaging businesses for year-over-year and longer-term operational improvements, as well as their role as product stewards, community ambassadors and team players.

The most sustainable plants of 2016 and highlights of their achievements include:

Global Beverage Packaging

• Brasília, Brazil (Beverage Packaging South America): The plant achieved another year without a recordable incident. Moreover, the team in Brasília improved electricity efficiency by 7 percent, educated the local community about the unique sustainability credentials of beverage cans, and supported non-profit organizations focused on food security and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
• Cairo, Egypt (Beverage Packaging Asia Pacific & Beverage Packaging Africa, Middle East & Asia): The highly engaged workforce in our Cairo plant excelled in all eight award categories. Among other achievements, the plant sent 15 employees on assignments to our newest plant in Sri City, India, in order to make it a safe and efficient plant from the start. Cairo employees also supported research to better understand the informal collection process for used beverage cans in Egypt, and tied employee volunteering to disaster relief and preparedness in a nearby community.
• Fort Worth, Texas, USA (Beverage Packaging North & Central America): Over the last two years, the plant transformed the way it operates. During 2016, the plant increased electricity efficiency by 6, natural gas efficiency by 9 and water efficiency by 21 percent.
• San Martino, Italy (Beverage Packaging Europe): The plant continues to be a leader among its peers when it comes to operational excellence and occupational health and safety, achieving some of the highest efficiencies throughout Europe. In addition, the plant hosts a can ambassador event in San Martino to educate consumers about the can as the most sustainable package.

Food & Aerosol Packaging

• Canton-Brookline, Ohio, USA (Ball Tinplate): Acquired in 2015, our Canton-Brookline facility quickly became an important factor for Ball's sustainability performance. The plant achieved zero recordable incidents for the first time during 2016, participated in the Great American Can Roundup, and truly embraced the "One Ball" culture by focusing on driving EVA^® (economic value added) dollars for the entire Food & Aerosol business.
• Verona, Virginia, USA (Ball Aerocan): Verona continues to deliver strong results, winning the Hoover Sustainability Award for the second year in a row. For example, the plant's charity committee donated and volunteered in multiple facets, contributing to measurable impacts in the four focus areas of Ball's community engagement strategy.

"Sustainability remains at the core of maximizing value in all of Ball's businesses," 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 2016 Hoover Sustainability Award winning plants and our employees for their persistent dedication to our long-term vision of making the can the most sustainable package."

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.

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 18,450 people worldwide and 2016 net sales were $9.1 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," "believes," "targets," "likely" and similar expressions typically identify forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements and any of such statements should be read in conjunction with, and, qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements referenced below. 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 factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be different 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. Additional 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; competitive activity; failure to achieve synergies, 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 a loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; currency controls; 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 geopolitical events and governmental policies both in the U.S. and in other countries, including the U.S. government elections, budget, sequestration and debt limit; reduced cash flow; ability to achieve cost-out initiatives and synergies; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful acquisitions and divestitures, including with respect to the Rexam PLC acquisition and its integration, or the associated divestiture; the effect of the acquisition or the divestiture on our business relationships, operating results and business generally.

SOURCE Ball Corporation