Brussels — The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has launched the 2017 report „Sustainable Steel – Indicators 2017 and the future“. The report highlights three aspects: steel as a critical enabler and partner for other industries in a sustainable society; steel as an industry which takes its commitments and responsibilities seriously; and the challenges facing the industry along with initiatives that are in place to address them.
Edwin Basson, Director General, worldsteel, commented: “Reporting our sustainability performance with the 8 indicators is one aspect that demonstrates our commitment to sustainability. Our intention is to monitor progress and foster improvement from a social, economic and environmental sustainability perspective. In addition to reporting, we, together with our members, have been taking action through a range of initiatives to address the challenges the steel industry faces to ensure the sustainable development of the industry.”
“This year we wanted to go beyond the 8 indicators in our reporting of the industry’s sustainability performance and commitment, and discuss the material issues which matter most to the industry and its stakeholders. We perform materiality assessments on a regular basis to ensure that the industry’s reporting is relevant and meaningful. In addition to our 8 sustainability indicators, our most recent assessment identified 7 further areas which we plan to address extensively in our communications over the coming years. These areas are air quality, water, by-products, recycling, supply chain, environmental investment and product applications.”
Reporting is voluntary and open to both members and non-members of worldsteel. The steel industry is one of the few that reports at a global level and has done so since 2004. Coverage and representativeness has steadily improved since then, with a total of 125 companies and 6 associations worldwide participating in the 2017 data collection. Crude steel produced by companies who reported on one or more indicators for the 2016 fiscal year was 875Mt, representing 54 percent of global crude steel production, up from 33 percent in 2004.
Results for 8 steel industry indicators for the 2016 fiscal year are as follows:
Environmental sustainability
Social sustainability
Economic sustainability
The 2017 Sustainability report can be downloaded from worldsteel.org along with further information on historical data, indicator definitions, and contributing organisations.
Source: World Steel Association (worldsteel)