1.   But to understand these challenges better, I propose starting with a rapid assessment of the current situation.
 
On the environmental front, often the most visible aspect of sustainable development, the media have extensively covered alarming reports of the problems of climate change, of water shortages which now affect 1 in every 3 persons, waste management, deforestation, soil erosion, and more.
 
I will not say more about this aspect, other than noting that it is clear that few people take it seriously enough to change their way of life.
 
It is more difficult to report on the social front. There are certain general positive tendencies: average incomes have increased by 22% in the world and the number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased by 130 million.
 
But there remain disturbing phenomena such as poverty, the unacceptably large number of young children in the world who are still working, AIDS, and, closer to home, work-related stress and ill health, which is increasingly costly in Québec and Canadian society.¹ Not to speak of the problem of workforce succession management, which is beginning to affect a number of industrialized countries.
 
The report on the economic front bears the two-faced stamp of globalization: half angel, half devil.
 
There are now some 70,000 international companies on the planet, with some 700,000 subsidiaries and millions of suppliers. Together, they constitute a formidable network which, as well as creating jobs and transferring technology, has contributed a great deal to spreading awareness of environmental issues and of struggles against discrimination and for human rights.² The repercussions of this on transport and on the flow of information has allowed many small- and medium-sized companies to access markets on the far side of the world, as some of our suppliers can testify!
 
There is, however, a flip side to this coin.
 
For example, governance capability is weak in certain countries, and the protection of human rights and application of environmental regulations often ineffective if not nonexistent. Companies that operate in these countries must strengthen their internal controls and their own governance capability.
 
In drawing up this brief balance sheet, I may have given the impression that it was possible to separate environmental, social and economic problems. This is where the fundamental difficulty lies, for most of these problems are, in fact, interrelated!

Suddenly, the basic question becomes: How do we solve all these environmental, social and economic problems, knowing that we have to tackle them simultaneously and from all sides?
 
Today, we're in quite a paradoxical situation with, on the one hand, alarm calls about our future growing ever louder, and on the other, the apparent multiplication of applications of sustainable development principles.
 
What lessons should we draw from this? It seems to me that we could sum it up by saying that we're on the right road, but that we set off quite late, and that we have to pick up the pace if we are to avoid ending up like the hare in the fable.
 

2.   I would like to illustrate these remarks by describing Alcoa's current situation.
 
We are fortunate in having a good product, aluminum, which can be part of the long-term solution of many problems. It is sustainable, and can be almost indefinitely recycled: more than 70% of the aluminum produced in the world since the industry began a century ago is still in use. Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to make new metal. Aluminum, being lighter than certain traditional materials, reduces the weight of vehicles and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In fact, replacing traditional materials in transport by 1 kg of aluminum is equivalent to reducing GHG emissions by 20 kg over the life of a vehicle.
 
Moreover, for a long time now, we have been active on environmental and social questions:

• We are concerned about Health and Safety and, thanks to the programs we have set up and which are now integral to our culture, we have significantly reduced our rate of time-loss accidents. In fact, it has been more than a year and a half since we have had any accident involving loss of time in any of our aluminum smelters in Québec with their more than 3,500 employees.  
• Turning to GHGs, in 2002 we became the first company in Québec to sign a voluntary agreement with the Government of Québec to reduce emissions. We have reached our targets for the period 2002-2005, and are well on the way to reaching our 2006-2007 targets. If all goes as we think it will, we will have reduced our total emissions by 10% relative to 2001.
• All our plants are certified ISO 14 001 and they have all been certified by the "Ici on recycle" program of Recyc-Québec.
• We have numerous social partners and programs such as the programs of the Alcoa Foundation, which encourage our employees to participate as volunteers in their community; the Ten Million Trees project; the actions carried out during Earth Day and the National Waste Reduction Week.
• We have set up local advisory committees in each of the regions in which we operate, and in 2006, we created an advisory committee on sustainable development to advise us on integrating the expectations of Québec society into our business practices.

• Major technological advances require considerable sums, years of investment, research and testing, before being applied industrially;
• Changes in behavior require a lot of sensitization, time and attention to be effective. Québecers needed a generation to accept the use of seat belts;⁴
• The renewing and regeneration of natural resources, of wood for instance, goes in cycles that sometimes extend over several decades; and
• Adapting our processes must be done through dialogue, but this approach sometimes takes longer to make a real change.

1. Forget the duration, which is often short, of our mandates, and dare to take actions whose benefits we will not always see;
2. Have a long-term vision, supported by a structured approach; and
3. Balance the pressure for short-term results with our long-term objectives, and not make choices that compromise our long-term vision.

1. Recognize the value added by all stakeholders, whoever they are;
2. Be more transparent in our exchanges of information;
3. Accept enlarging decision-making processes; and
4. Surmount cultural barriers associated with our role, functions or organization.

1. Working on the long-term;
2. Mobilizing our stakeholders; and
3. Moving on to action;