Alcoa Corporation — Ethics Grade C-

Alcoa Corporation receives an overall ethics grade of C- (48/100) on CancelCo's corporate accountability database. Sector: Mining & Metals. Market cap: Large Cap.

Category scores

• labor: 60
• privacy: 85
• consumer: 70
• environment: 35
• humanRights: 45

Documented incidents (3)

• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violation (high, 2014) — Alcoa paid hundreds of millions to settle charges involving a long-running scheme to bribe government officials in Bahrain to maintain supply contracts. The SEC found that an Alcoa subsidiary used a middleman to funnel bribes to royal family members.
• Water Catchment Contamination Risk (high, 2023) — Operations in Western Australia faced intense scrutiny over bauxite mining activities near critical water dams. Regulators expressed concerns about the potential for tailings runoff to contaminate drinking water supplies for Perth.
• Clean Air Act Violations (medium, 2019) — The EPA reached a settlement with Alcoa regarding unauthorized emissions of hazardous air pollutants from its aluminum smelting facilities. The company was required to install modern pollution control equipment to mitigate Sulfur Dioxide output.

Documented good deeds

• Elysis Zero-Carbon Smelting — Alcoa partnered to develop Elysis technology, which produces oxygen instead of greenhouse gases during the aluminum smelting process, a major breakthrough for industrial decarbonization.

Ethical alternatives

• Norsk Hydro — Norsk Hydro utilizes renewable energy for a majority of its smelting operations and has higher transparency ratings.