It is manufactured using a more environmentally friendly process. It's certified for its sustainable practices too, by a global nonprofit focused on making aluminium even more "green."

As the world gathered for COP23 in Bonn, Germany, UC RUSAL was getting attention for a plan that will help the planet to meet its lower carbon emissions targets. That's because RUSAL commits to relying on renewable hydropower when making ALLOW products, thereby reducing the impact of energy-intensive smelter operations when it comes to the inputs in consumer goods, cars, packaging and other uses.

RUSAL's R&D investments led to a proprietary smelting process called RA 550 that reduces aluminium's CO2 footprint from the beginning. For that process – and for 90 percent of RUSAL's production capacity – it is renewable hydropower from Russia's mighty rivers that is generating the necessary energy instead of fossil fuels. What's more, the company says it's an achievable goal to make that 95 percent by 2025.

Aluminium made with ALLOW is guaranteed to have a CO2 footprint that's lower than 4t CO2/t of aluminium. That's four to five times lower than the emissions generated by a coal power process and less than half that of aluminium produced using gas sources. The scale of the contribution comes into view when realizing that smelters consume about 4 percent of global electrical power output each year.

"We know that consumers are increasingly demanding ever greater detail about the provenance of the products they purchase and their associated carbon footprint," says Vladislav Soloviev, the CEO of RUSAL. "ALLOW will provide consumers and manufacturers alike with confidence that the aluminium used in their products has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry."

Take the tech sector, for example. About two-thirds of the world population now uses a smartphone, and that's almost 5 billion people. Those devices are increasingly connected to and with Internet of Things (IoT) enabled products, from sound systems to security solutions. Mobile devices also are a preferred pathway for shopping, banking, health monitoring systems, education and work – in fact, just about all activities that rely on technological advances to drive the future and help humans to flourish.

Yet the devices come with a cost too, in terms of the components: how they're mined or manufactured, and the ethics behind both the direct environmental impacts and the labor practices within the goods themselves. RUSAL says it understands that consumers, and the companies like Apple that serve them, want to know how their smartphones are being made and how that connects to their own consumption.

"Today's socially responsible consumers want to know that the product they choose reflects their values and helps them in keeping a light carbon footprint," the ALLOW website explains. "Their expansive view of sustainability takes into account fair labour practices, human rights, corporate social justice commitments and the company's environmental record." That's where the new product fits right in, and promises to deliver the performance manufacturers and their end users expect.

Yet it doesn't stop there, because ALLOW helps to make possible a sustainable future that harnesses the power of technology. The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative is supporting that effort, and RUSAL is one of 55 members of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) – manufacturers, tech companies, human rights advocates and environmental groups – promising to verify sustainable aluminium production in the same way as sustainably harvested lumber or organic foods. You can learn more about ASI here.