Pittsburgh-based Alcoa has helped China develop an innovative new bus that will lighten the load during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

The world’s leading aluminum producer has joined the largest bus manufacturer in China, the Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Company in Yutong, to put buses on the road that will weigh 1.5 tons less than the current steel buses and require significantly less fuel and emit fewer greenhouse gases.

The aluminum bus features Alcoa’s spaceframe technology, a design already used in cars such as the Ferrari 612 and the Audi A8, which recently received the 2008 European Inventor of the Year Award. The high-strength, low-weight bus has proven more fuel efficient, safer and will significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions, a concern in a country with the highest number of annual air pollution-related deaths in the world.

“China has made addressing climate change a priority and this is one area where we can help them,” says Kevin Lowry, Alcoa spokesman. “Since we announced this contract, we’re getting many, many calls from companies in the ground transportation market around the world. You’re going to see much, much more of this.”

The aluminum industry is projected to be greenhouse gas neutral by the year 2025 as a result of projected use in the transportation market. Alcoa believes that the savings in greenhouse gas emissions from lighter weight, more fuel-efficient vehicles will more than offset emissions generated when the metal is first produced.