worldsteel Report Spotlights Sustainability Achievement of Steel Industry

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has released a new report that analyzes the major sustainability performances of the industry during 2016. It provides indicators for 2017 and the future. The report is based on data provided by 125 steel companies and 6 steel associations. The companies report on up to 8 sustainability indicators every year. The industry performance is analyzed based on a set of indicators that measures environmental, social and economic performance.

Greenhouse gas emission levels held steady at 1.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne crude steel cast in 2016, literally unchanged from 2015 levels. The industry is hopeful of announcing new techniques to address this challenge. Energy Intensity too maintained previous year level of 19.1 GJ per tonne crude steel cast. The percentage of materials converted to products and by-products increased marginally from 97.3 in 2015 to 97.6 in 2016. There was a significant improvement in the percentage of employees and contractors working in registered production facilities from 93.6 in 2015 to 97.1 in 2016.

The sector reported improved safety metrics with the lost time injury frequency rate falling from 1.2 injuries per million hours worked to 1.0. The steel industry is committed to zero-injury and zero-illness workplaces, the report noted. The training days per employee improved to 7.0 in 2016, as compared with 6.8 in 2015. It must be noted that nearly 6 million people work for the steel industry worldwide. The industry invested 13% of its annual revenue in new processes and products in 2016, which includes capital expenditure and R&D investment. The share of investment was only 12.6% in 2015. Moreover, steel sector distributed 98.8% of its revenue to society-directly and indirectly.

According to worldsteel, it has identified 7 key focus areas for further development through materiality assessments conducted on member companies. This will help the steel industry to go beyond the already existing 8 sustainability indicators. In future, worldsteel plans to broaden its sustainability communications with its stakeholders by addressing these key focus areas in a more detailed manner. This will help the industry to identify areas of improvement. The report identifies the seven focus areas as- Environmental Investment, Water, Air quality, Product applications, By-products, Supply Chain and Recycling.