Protecting the climate

Mitigating climate change with stainless steel

Outokumpu is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative and reducing CO2 emissions even further. Constantly improving sustainable solutions are needed for mitigating climate change, and stainless steel is an excellent material for its recyclability, durability, and low carbon footprint.

The lowest carbon footprint in the industry

Global megatrends such as population growth, accelerating mobility and urbanization have resulted in increasing carbon emissions and climate change. Stainless steel can help to build solutions for a more sustainable world.

Outokumpu’s carbon footprint is less than 30% of the global industry average. Key reasons are for our low carbon footprint are our own ferrochrome, high recycled content and the use of low carbon electricity.

Outokumpu helps its customers develop solutions that reduce climate burden by means of the right material choices. On an annual level, our clients are able to reduce their carbon footprint by 8 million tons. Outokumpu publishes environmental product declarations (EPDs) on its main products using life cycle inventory data. This means our customers are able to calculate the sustainability performance of their product life cycles.

Value chain emissions graph

 

 

Climate targets

Our total company carbon profile, including upstream emissions, is the lowest in the industry according to our calculations. We have reduced our emissions by increasing the share of recycled material in stainless steel production to more than 90%. In addition, we have increased the share of low-carbon electricity in energy consumption, improved energy efficiency and reduced transport emissions.

Outokumpu’s long-term climate target is to reduce its direct and indirect CO2 emissions as well as those of its supply chain (scopes 1, 2 and 3) to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To be able to do that, we plan to cut our emissions by 20% by 2023 from the 2014 – 2016 baseline. We are well on track to reach the target after 17% reductions in emissions by the end of 2020.

In May 2021, Outokumpu decided to commit to the Business Ambition for 1.5°C objective according to Science-Based Targets (SBT) initiative, clearly raising its earlier climate objectives. The amount of the company specific CO2 emission reductions will be determined during the approval process with the SBT organization, but is estimated to be approximately 30% by 2030 compared to the company’s 2020 level. Outokumpu is the first stainless steel producer to commit to the SBT initiative and has already been a member since 2016, when the company’s earlier 2°C climate objectives were approved.