Moscow, August 3, 2021 –RUSAL (Hong Kong Stock Exchange Code 486, Moscow Stock Exchange Code RUAL) announces the results of the Green Wave, an annual contest of environmental initiatives. The Company will spend RUB 3.9 mln to implement the winning projects across eight of Russia's regions. This will involve planting greenery in open-air public spaces, building environmental awareness, and promoting non-wasteful consumer habits.

Announced in April 2021, 247 applications were submitted for the contest, with participants including non-profit organisations, governmental and municipal institutions, homeowners' partnerships and social entrepreneurs. The ideas they submitted to the contest included planting greenery in local urban spaces as well as various projects in the field of environmental volunteering and entrepreneurship. The final result included 35 winners in the Planting and Landscaping category. Another nine projects were named winners in the Eco-Initiatives category. All of them will receive grants for up to RUB 100,000.
As an example, RUSAL will support the initiative to recycle wastepaper ad produce decorative items from recyclables at a school in Achinsk through a mini workshop alongside a unique green area of perennial plants to appear in the Shelekhov city park. From the beginning of the school year, schoolchildren in Volgograd will nurture seedlings of coniferous and deciduous species and, together with volunteers, plant the trees on Mamayev Kurgan in the spring of 2022. Eco-entrepreneurs in Krasnoyarsk will launch the production of edible tableware made from available local plants — Siberian apples, carrots and beets — acting as a practice which can be replicated throughout the city's schools. In addition, a sensory garden will be created at a school in Kamensk-Uralsky, which will serve as a space for children to develop their sensory faculties and provide a place for their parents to take a rest. In Krasnoturyinsk, volunteers will set up a cosy green space in the yard of the local puppet theatre, where the theatre's young spectators can roam about and explore after the performances.

'This year, we have provided the same grant to winners in both categories of the Green Wave contest providing the chance to expand opportunities for all participants. We would like to note that the winners in the Planting and Landscaping category are moving away from ideas of spot planting and rather striving to create a more versatile urban infrastructure providing an area, which is both comfortable and provides an area for active recreation. The Eco-Initiative category is becoming popular, and we are glad to see the variety of ideas around promoting environment-friendly lifestyles proposed by the project creators,' said Rustam Zakiev, Head of the Social Policy Department at RUSAL.

Fact sheet:
The Green Wave contest has been held since 2017 within the framework of RUSAL's social programme Helping is Easy, which is aimed at promoting corporate and citywide volunteering. The geographical coverage of the contest includes the following regions in which the Company operates: Volgograd Region (Volgograd), Leningrad Region (Boksitogorsk), Murmansk Region (Kandalaksha), Krasnoyarsk Territory (Krasnoyarsk, Divnogorsk, Achinsk, Achinsk District, Sharypovo District and Tayozhny village), The Republic of Khakassia (Sayanogorsk, Sorsk), Irkutsk Region (Bratsk, Taishet, Taishet District, Shelekhov, Shelekhov District), Kemerovo Region (Novokuznetsk, Belogorsk) and Sverdlovsk Region (Severouralsk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Krasnoturyinsk and Mikhailovsk).