The Keys to Alcoa's Aggressive Sustainability Program

One year after setting ambitious sustainability goals, Alcoa is on track to meet its targets, says Kevin Anton, the company's chief sustainability officer.

Alcoa has already met greenhouse-gas-reduction goals originally scheduled to be achieved in 2020, Anton says, and now needs to focus on maintaining its momentum. "You want to set real stretch targets that may make operating people in the company feel uncomfortable because they're not sure how they're going to get there," he said. "A strong target and incentive compensation matched to it will drive innovation."

Twenty percent of variable compensation is tied to some aspect of sustainability, such as energy, greenhouse gas emissions, safety or diversity in the workplace.  "If you want to get well-compensated at Alcoa, you need to be pulling the sustainability lever hard." Read more at Green Biz