Stakeholder Engagement

Engaging our stakeholders is an essential part of how we do business. By listening to their ideas and needs, we better understand their expectations and can identify emerging opportunities and challenges in our markets. They, in turn, learn more about Ball and how we can work together to create shared value.

We engage with various stakeholders such as customers, employees, investors, suppliers, trade associations, governmental representatives and regulatory authorities and non-governmental organizations. Ball worked with internal and external stakeholders to identify a set of sustainability priorities for our company.

Dialog with stakeholders along the packaging value chain, from material suppliers to recycling organizations, is particularly important to Ball. It provides the opportunity to discuss how to maximize the contribution of our packaging to sustainable development.

Ball participates in projects that seek to reach consensus on packaging and its role in the movement toward sustainability. For example, together with retailers, consumer goods companies, material suppliers and other manufacturers, Ball developed a guide for corporate decision makers, Packaging in the Sustainability Agenda, in 2009. We also participate in the Global Packaging Project, led by the Consumer Goods Forum, to develop common, globally accepted definitions and principles of metrics for packaging in the context of sustainability.

Ball has been a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) since 2006. The SPC is an industry working group dedicated to transforming packaging into a system that encourages economic prosperity and a sustainable flow of materials. We participate in various results-oriented projects that provide an opportunity for SPC members to collaboratively share best practices.

As stated in Ball’s Five Keys to Success, we aim to be "close to customers." It is our intention to continue to bring value to customer relationships beyond quality and price, and show what we can do to help our customers succeed. We want to be the sustainable supplier of choice by responding to customers’ needs and doing our part in contributing to their sustainability goals.

Packaging schools and forums, plant visits and face-to-face meetings from executive to managerial levels are just some examples of how we engage with our customers. Close cooperation on sustainability related projects, e.g. the development of a further optimized container or packaging collection projects, are other examples of how we strive to fulfill our commitment to being close to our customers and making Ball a more sustainable enterprise.

Ball Corporation organized its first North American beverage "Can School" for our customers in 1998, a class with insights into the world of manufacturing beverage cans. Since then we have added a steel can school to the US curriculum and a beverage can school in Europe. Ball’s can schools are usually held once a year and cover information on Ball’s culture, manufacturing processes, innovation and sustainability. We hold three packaging schools annually in the U.S. and Europe, attended by over 200 customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders.

Ball also organizes an annual Packaging Solutions Forum in our Colorado headquarters. The forum focuses on the consumer and market trends that are driving packaging innovation in the marketplace. In 2010, over 70 representatives of more than 40 customers attended the two forums. Retailer requirements with respect to sustainability have been discussed during the forums, among many other topics.

As part of our commitment to being close to customers, Ball launched a new customer survey program to build customer loyalty and satisfaction and to improve awareness of specific customer requirements and needs. Value Improvement Partnership (VIP) uses a questionnaire that can be returned by e-mail. The survey extends to all levels of the company, enabling strategies, work processes and day-to-day work to be compared against customers’ needs. The VIP program is based on the idea of a closed cycle - ask, understand, react, ask again. The core of the program is the ability to manage our customers’ loyalty through the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a single number loyalty index based on the survey question, "How likely would you be to recommend Ball to a friend or colleague?" The NPS shows how loyal the customer is to Ball.

Ball first launched the VIP program in Europe in late 2009 and is extended it to North American customers in 2010. Longer term, we will look at extending the program to other regions.

In our metal beverage packaging business, we service our customers’ filling lines at their request to ensure our cans run smoothly, maximizing filling line efficiencies and reducing can spoilage. Our Customer Technical Service experts also provide training at the customers request  to help minimize the possibility of filling and seaming problems that could affect the product inside the container.

Regularly exchanging information, data and ideas on sustainability related issues with our suppliers is important to us. We encourage and expect our suppliers to operate using responsible business practices and to abide by all applicable laws and regulations.  To that end, Ball began implementing Supplier Guiding Principles (SGP) in 2009.

Human Trafficking
The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 requires retailers and manufacturers that do business in California to publicly disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains. Ball Corporation (“Ball”) strives to engage suppliers that comply with all applicable laws regarding forced labor and human trafficking.  Ball is taking steps to require that suppliers, through our contracts where possible, operate ethically and within the bounds of all local laws and regulations.  Ball fully supports the intent of this law.

• Ball is in the process of verifying, evaluating and addressing supply chain issues related to human trafficking and slavery.
• Ball does not have a self audit plan or a third party audit plan for the audit of its suppliers to evaluate their compliance with sustainability and social responsibility goals, including those directly related to human trafficking and slavery.
• Ball has developed a certification document that will require direct suppliers to certify that the materials incorporated into their products comply with the laws and regulations of the countries where they are being sold, including those relating to the prohibition of forced labor and human trafficking.
• Ball has policies that address noncompliance by employees and vendors working with, and for, Ball, such as Ball’s human rights policy and Supplier Guiding Principles, both of which address forced labor and human trafficking.
• Ball is developing training regarding supply chain risks related to forced labor and human trafficking for its sourcing, supply chain and other personnel that have direct responsibility for supply chain management

Ball strives to achieve high standards of legal and ethical conduct for itself and its business partners and strives to ensure compliance with all laws.

Life Cycle Assessments
Based on beverage can Life Cycle Assessments that Ball developed with industry partners in the U.S. and Europe, we know that most of the environmental impacts of beverage cans occur during metal production. However, improvements can be made at every stage of the packaging value chain. The two central parameters for reducing the environmental impacts associated with beverage cans are the weight of cans and the recycling rates. During our 40-year history of manufacturing beverage cans, together with our suppliers we have reduced the weight of 12 ounce beverage cans by 40 percent, significantly decreasing the environmental impact of the cans.

Bisphenol-A
Scientific evidence evaluated by regulatory agencies worldwide has consistently shown that human exposure to Bisphenol-A (BPA) from epoxy can coatings is well below safe exposure limits set by government regulators. However, a debate continues over BPA. We are working with coating suppliers and others to find non-epoxy coatings that can consistently meet the needs of our customers and of consumers.

In some countries, the packaging we produce is regulated. Therefore, we monitor and participate in public policy discussions when appropriate to protect and enhance our business. We engage with political and regulatory stakeholders on multinational national, state and regional levels. By doing so, we increase their knowledge of our company and industry. We invite officials to visit our plants to better understand our business and the economic impact we have in the communities.

We are also involved with a range of professional organizations and trade associations to promote a healthy business climate and to keep us informed on developments that may influence our businesses. A list of these memberships can be accessed in our 2010 GRI Content Index (4.13). In addition, our businesses and facilities are expected to be members of the appropriate local chambers of commerce, manufacturers associations and other interest groups to promote discussions with local decision makers on a variety of business matters that could affect our facilities.

Ball engages with mainstream investors and the socially responsible investment (SRI) community. Although it is mainly the SRI community that asks for detailed information on our approach to sustainability and our performance, mainstream investors are increasingly interested in Ball’s long-term sustainability.

Today, we contribute to several benchmarking initiatives by the SRI community. We seek to improve our assessments and to align our sustainability management and reporting according to the needs of investors. Ball was again selected for the FTSE4Good Index Series on the London Stock Exchange in March 2011. The FTSE4Good criteria are designed to reflect a broad consensus on what constitutes good corporate responsibility practice globally.

We have also participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2006. We talked to CDP analysts in 2010 and aim to further improve our score in the 2011 assessment.