The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today launched the2016 edition of Sustainable Steel – Policy and Indicators, highlighting howsteel and the steel industry contribute to and perform in the areas ofeconomic, environmental and social sustainability.

Thereport highlights the steel industry’s performance throughout 2015 against 8sustainability indicators.

Publicationof the report reflects the steel industry’s efforts to continuously improveperformance in sustainability in line with the 17 United Nations SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs).

Reportingis voluntary and in 2015 a total of 159 companies worldwide participated in thestudy, up from 42 in 2004. Crude steel produced by companies who reported onone or more indicators for the 2015 fiscal year was 899Mt, representing 55% ofglobal crude steel production.

DrEdwin Basson, Director General, worldsteel, said, “We in steel recognise theimportance of proving our commitment to sustainability to the wider world. Thesustainability indicators do just that. As such, I am delighted to see thatparticipation levels among steel companies continue to go up and that we arecontinuing to improve our environmental, social and economic performance.

Steelis the material on which a sustainable future is going to be built. By aligningour sustainable development goals with those of the United Nations we aremaking clear to the world that we understand the challenges we face and areserious about taking action.”

Commentingon the industry’s performance, Dr Basson said, “Although we commend theprogress to date we are at no risk of becoming complacent. We will continue tochampion the sustainable development of our industry and encourage widerparticipation among our member companies.”

The8 indicators are:

Environmental sustainability

1. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: An average of 1.9 tonnes of CO2 are emitted for every tonne of steel produced.
2. Energy intensity: 20.3 GJ per tonne of crude steel cast
3. Material efficiency: 97.3% of materials used on-site to make crude steel are converted to products and by-products.
4. Environmental Management System (EMS): An 11.5% increase in employees and contractors working in EMS-registered production facilities since 2005.

Social sustainability

1. The lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) was 1.2 injuries per million hours worked.
2. Employees (at both production and non-production facilities) received an average of 6.8 training days per year.

Economic sustainability

1. Investment in new processes and products was 12.6% of revenue
2. Economic value distributed (EVD) was 98.1% of industry revenue

Furtherinformation on definitions and contributing organisations can be found here.