BROOMFIELD, Colo., June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) announced the company's major milestones from 2016 tied to its sustainability priorities and progress toward its ambitious 2020 goals, which were announced last year. The online update covers sustainability data for the company's post-acquisition footprint for the first time.

"2016 was a significant year in Ball's history and on our sustainability journey," said John A. Hayes, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We became a larger, more global company, began integrating new plants and employees into our sustainability mindset, and continued evolving our organization, our processes and our products so that we can make cans the most sustainable choice in the beverage, aerosol and food value chains."

Highlights from 2016 include:

Product Stewardship

• Collaborated with North American customers to bring sustainable ReAl^® aerosol cans to the U.S. ReAl cans include a proprietary, Ball-developed aluminum alloy that allows the lightweighting of its impact extruded aerosol cans by 20 percent. This lightweighting reduces a 150-milliliter ReAl aerosol can's carbon footprint by 18 percent when compared to a standard can.
• Continued work on the Joint Polar Satellite System satellite, which is currently completing environmental testing for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. JPSS will enable critical measurements of global atmosphere, ocean and land surfaces and provide essential data for weather forecasting, storm tracking and continuity of NASA's long-term environmental data record.
• Educated, inspired and empowered stakeholders to strategically strengthen curbside recycling in the U.S. through our support of The Recycling Partnership. Over the past three years, the Partnership has reached 17 million households in 424 cities, placed 400,000 new recycling carts on the ground, reduced contamination rates by 30 percent in targeted communities, and catalyzed investments in collection and recycling of approximately $27 million.

Operational Excellence

• Commenced a significant effort to collect, consolidate and verify 2010-2016 monthly "Big 6" metrics, Ball's six most material operational sustainability indicators, for the 41 Rexam manufacturing plants that we integrated into our portfolio after the acquisition's close in June 2016. All data is used internally for performance monitoring, benchmarking, and best practice identification and sharing. Externally, in order to allow our stakeholders to analyze performance trends, all environmental data available on ball.com (and highlighted in this release) reflects our company after the acquisition. ERM Certification and Verification Services assured the majority of our 2016 data.
• Reduced our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR, recordable incidents per 200,000 hours worked) by 14 percent.
• Increased energy efficiency in our Global Beverage Packaging business, which accounted for 85 percent of Ball's total 2016 energy consumption, by 5 percent since 2012.
• Achieved a 15 percent reduction in our Carbon Intensity Index (normalized scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions) from the 2010 baseline, averaging a 2.5 percent reduction per year.

Talent Management

• Conducted an Integration Pulse Survey with approximately 500 employees from regions that were significantly impacted by the Rexam acquisition and achieved an excellent 81 percent engagement score. Results, which reflect the introduction of new employees to Ball, our culture and our Drive for 10 vision, were utilized to develop action plans for our business transformation journey.
• Developed and launched a new leadership framework, which outlines expectations for leaders and how we can elevate the leaders of today, prepare the leaders of tomorrow and ensure our culture remains strong.

Community Ambassadors

• Donated more than $4 million to approximately 1,900 charitable organizations in the communities where the company operates and logged more than 34,000 hours of volunteer service – 2,000 hours more than in 2015.
• Invested in community programs that create a positive, measurable impact on recycling, food security, disaster relief, and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the U.S. through The Ball Foundation.

"Thank you to our more than 18,000 employees around the world and to our partners for their ongoing commitment to driving significant improvements toward Ball's sustainability priorities," Hayes added. "With your help, we will continue to revolutionize our industries, serve our customers, and put the right people and processes in place to help us achieve our vision and create long-term value for our stakeholders."

For more information on Ball's ongoing sustainability efforts, please visit www.ball.com/sustainability. Additionally, for full 2016 sustainability data, visit our updated data center at www.ball.com/data-center.

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