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NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

We are committed to being a leading steward of our planet.

We use our expertise and ingenuity to meet environmental and societal needs for today and for generations to come.

Our Governance

As responsible stewards of the environment, we monitor and manage our environmental impacts including energy consumption, water use, air emissions, waste generation and potential biodiversity of our sites. Our CEO and Executive Leadership Team are accountable for Albemarle's environmental performance, and the Safety, Sustainability, Operations & Capital (SOC) Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of Albemarle's natural resource management programs. 

The committee meets quarterly with our Vice President, Investor Relations and Sustainability, to review our natural resource management performance and progress towards our environmental targets, and the SOC Committee reports to the Board on a quarterly basis. Our environmental policy outlines our commitment to our environmental stewardship.

ENERGY, GHG EMISSIONS AND CLIMATE

As a world leader in the transformation of essential resources into critical ingredients for mobility, energy, connectivity and health, we must do our part to reduce energy use and emissions from our own operations.

Our Approach

  • We strive for continuous improvement and benchmark our performance against our top performing peers.
  • We collect scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions data for all Albemarle sites within our boundaries using the principles of the GHG Protocol.
  • We use an integrated environmental data management platform to help us gain greater visibility into our sustainability performance across the company.

 

Programs & Initiatives

  • We increasingly power our operations with renewable electricity. In 2025, 26% of our total electricity consumption was from renewable resources, up from 14% in 2024.
  • Our Meishan facility procured steam generated from biomass sources in 2025. Using biomass feedstock represents an improvement in our environmental performance, as the CO2 emissions generated during biomass combustion are balanced by the CO2 sequestered through photosynthesis while the feedstock is grown.
  • We invest in innovative process technologies such as heat recovery and integration systems to optimize energy efficiency.
  • We use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies to develop Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) to help us better understand the climate change impacts of our products and to help our customers gain greater visibility into their scope 3 emissions.
GHG TARGETS 2019-2030

Grow our Energy Storage business in a scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity-neutral manner (2019 baseline).

Reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity of Specialties by 35% by 2030 in alignment with science-based targets (2019 baseline).

 

  • Status Energy Storage: Ahead
  • Status Specialties: Behind
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CLIMATE STRATEGY

We analyze the risks and opportunities climate change presents to our business which strengthens our resilience and provides a basis for risk mitigation strategies.

The Albemarle Climate Strategy outlines our approach and responsibility to address the impact of our operations on the environment. We remain committed to reducing our carbon footprint. Developing a roadmap is the first step to enhance our resilience in a decarbonizing world while balancing stakeholder expectations, technological availability, and financial feasibility.

As part of our Climate Strategy, we complete the CDP Climate Change and Water Security questionnaire annually.

Please see our CDP Climate Change and Water Security Questionnaire in our Sustainability Reporting & Resources.

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS

We use Life Cycle Assessments to generate Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) to gain clearer insight into the climate impact of our offerings and help our customers track their scope 3 emissions.

We completed externally verified ISO compliant PCF studies for elemental bromine, several fire safety solutions products, as well as achieved ILiA stamps for our lithium hydroxide monohydrate PCFs produced at Xinyu and Qinzhou.

We are continuing to develop and implement a platform approach for determining PCFs for our Specialties products and continue to develop PCFs for our battery-grade lithium salts in line with regulatory requirements and customer requests.

DECARBONIZATION ROADMAP

We acknowledge the necessity of developing a long-term strategy to manage our GHG emissions that is consistent with our commitment to environmental responsibility and in response to stakeholder expectations and global climate legislation. 

While we continued to work toward our 2030 climate ambitions, in 2024, we also initiated the development of a decarbonization roadmap for reducing our carbon emissions beyond 2030. Our cross-functional team mapped hotspots where most of our emissions occur and that require significant interventions to meet our decarbonization ambitions. Across our facilities the following hot spots contribute the most emissions:

  • Purchased Electricity 
  • Steam Generation 
  • Drying
  • Transport and Stationary Engines 
  • Electricity Generation 
  • High Temperature Calcination 
  • Process CO2 and Fugitives 

In 2025, we conducted asset-specific decarbonization assessments to help us advance on our decarbonization ambitions. Additionally, we refreshed our climate change risk assessment by revising our assumptions related to climate-related financial risks and opportunities to better align with the current business and regulatory environment in which we operate.

RESPONSIBLE WATER MANAGEMENT

Water is key to a sustainable future and critical for socio-economic development, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems and human survival. Responsible management of freshwater resources is a core component of Albemarle’s sustainability strategy.

Our Approach

  • We understand that water is a shared resource, and as a signatory to the UNGC, we are committed to continuous improvement of our water management practices.
  • We invest in advanced technologies to reduce our freshwater footprint and prioritize initiatives in countries with a high or extremely high baseline water stress indicator as classified in Aqueduct 3.0 by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
  • We disclose our water management actions through our annual CDP response and our TCFD Report,  which outlines how we identify and manage water-related risks and opportunities related to our business.
  • We aim to conserve freshwater where possible and to lower our water footprint through monitoring and investment in technologies that improve water efficiency.
  • We collect water withdrawal and consumption data according to the SASB Chemicals Industry Standard and calculate the percentage of freshwater consumed in areas with high and extremely high overall water risk.
  • Our measurement of water use does not include brine (a source of bromine and lithium) due to its extreme salinity, which makes it unsuitable as a freshwater source.
     

 

Programs & Initiatives

  • We identify opportunities to reduce freshwater consumption through significant investments in our facilities and with our research and development efforts. 
    • In 2025 we maintained the same water intensity in Chile, which is well ahead of our target. The thermal evaporator at our La Negra facility in Chile enables us to significantly increase our lithium production without corresponding increases in freshwater usage. The evaporator became fully operational in early 2025, and we are continuing to assess opportunities for further water recovery.
    • In 2025, the NEBO project at our JBC joint venture produced its first commercial product. NEBO is an innovative process that converts a bromine co-product stream into a saleable product without requiring additional freshwater, particularly critical in a water-stressed region. By repurposing a production co-product and capturing water contained in the recycle stream to generate steam for use in other unit operations, the NEBO project is already delivering water savings and is expected to achieve an 11% reduction in water intensity in 2026. 
WATER TARGET 2019-2030

Reduce the intensity of freshwater usage by 25% in Chile and Jordan (2019 baseline).

Status: On track

CIRCULARITY AND WASTE MINIMIZATION

The success of our business is dependent on the efficient stewardship of finite brine and hard-rock resources.

Our Approach

  • We aim to reduce waste through the implementation of process improvements and to enable a circular economy through recycling initiatives and partnerships across our value chain.
  • We seek to ensure our co-products are valuable raw materials in other industries, assisting those industries with their sustainability goals and improving our own natural resource management and efficiency.

 

Programs & Initiatives

  • We align our tailings management with industry best practices at our sites globally.
    • In China, our delithiated aluminosilicate tailings are reused in the construction industry. In Chile, our co-product halite is sold to the mining industry as a raw material, and the co-product bischofite is sold as a dust suppressant for dirt roads, reducing waste and freshwater use.
    • Since 2022, we have increased the recycle rate of bischofite in Chile by over 30% and saved more than 47 billion gallons of water.
    • In Kings Mountain, our legacy Sandspar tailings pile is finding a new use as a raw material for tiles and bricks. In 2025, we increased the recycle rate for Sandspar by 20% year over year.
BIODIVERSITY

We understand the importance of protecting, sustainably managing and restoring biodiversity.

Our Approach

  • Our Biodiversity Statement highlights our commitment to protect, sustainably manage and restore biodiversity within and near our existing areas of operation.

 

Programs & Initiatives

  • To minimize the impact of our operations on biodiversity, we work with local communities and other stakeholders to develop and implement site-based biodiversity initiatives.
    • After an acoustic survey at our Kings Mountain, North Carolina, site suggested a potential habitat for the tricolored bat, one of the region’s smallest bat species and currently proposed to be listed as endangered, Albemarle committed to developing appropriate management strategies to mitigate potential impacts of our operations on the bat’s natural habitat.
    • At our Australian operations, we are proactively engaged in the federal nature policy space and with our First Nations custodians as well as pursuing on-ground biodiversity offsets.
    • In the Peine-Punta La Negra lagoon in Chile, we have donated over $1 million since 2016 to support the monitoring of the migration of flamingo populations and have seen an increase in the bird population since the program’s inception.
    • Through collaboration with the Nevada Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Silver Peak facility has developed a robust avian protection program.
  • We apply international best practices in conducting thorough analyses and site surveys across our operations.
    • Our commitment under IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance) obligates us to prevent and mitigate negative impacts of our mining operations on natural habitats and sensitive ecosystems.