PATHWAYS TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE THROUGH COLLABORATION

The alumina industry is facing short and long term challenges. In the short term, with depressed commodity prices, companies are facing pressure to cut costs and effectively do more with less. Although it’s perilous to generalise, it’s clear that some of the longer term issues that shape business sustainability will affect all companies, irrespective of size and commodity profile. As alumina companies hasten to cut costs, they risk missing the opportunities and value of collaborative technology development, which has been the source of sustained productivity improvements in this and other industries.

Looking to the future, innovation and collaboration is going to be critical to developing some of the enabling technologies that will ensure that the industry is going to be sustainable and companies remain competitive. Many of these technologies can be co-created through collaboration. As a relatively small industry, the effective use of scarce research funds by eliminating “imitative” innovation and collaborating at a deeper level, without losing individual competitiveness, could be a smart way of doing things.

AMIRA International is a global non-for-profit member-based organisation that facilitates the creation of multi-company partnerships which aim to provide solutions to common technical challenges through research and development. Over its 55 years life, AMIRA International has built an impressive record for knowledge advancement and innovation. The paper discusses why collaboration can pay off.