Canadian graphite developer Nouveau Monde has been admitted as an active member of the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) – a World Economic Forum initiative striving to establish a sustainable battery value chain.
GBA members include: Alliance for Responsible Mining, BMW Group, Google, Groupe Renault, Honda Motors, International Energy Agency, Johnson Matthey, LG Chem, Microsoft, SK Innovation, Umicore, UN Environment, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Group, and the World Bank Group.
“We are delighted to be invited to join leaders of the global battery industry to help advance the transition to a responsible as well as sustainable green economy. Responsibly sourced and extracted battery materials are the foundation stones of the battery value chain; and Nouveau Monde takes its leadership position seriously, and we see our position as an opportunity to power an ethical, environmental, and sustainable energy revolution,” said chairperson Arne Frandsen.
Nouveau Monde stresses that its vertically integrated business model, from mining operations to value-added transformation of battery materials, is underpinned by a commitment to sustainable development, past, present and future carbon neutrality, as well as ecotechnologies. As such, the company is dedicated to contributing to the creation of a battery passport. This global solution would enable securely sharing information and data, demonstrating responsibility, traceability, and sustainability to consumers.
Nouveau Monde earlier joined a pioneering project with Propulsion Québec, OPTEL Group, and the International Reference Center for Life Cycle of Products, Services, and Systems, to establish traceability by mapping and documenting the company’s graphite supply chain with detailed data on chemistry, environmental, social and governance factors, greenhouse-gas footprint and logistics. The project is affiliated with the GBA to inform global standards on battery identity and reporting criteria for sustainable and transparent battery production.
While much progress has been made on recycling processes for cathode metals (lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese), anode recovery remains to be developed to a similar level. Hence, Nouveau Monde has embarked on research and industrial partnerships to advance the recovery and value-added transformation of recycled graphite for reuse as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The company promotes graphite circularity with the objective of increasing the amount of recycled graphite to integrate into anode material manufacturing and further improve the environmental footprint of batteries.