Stainless Steel World Magazine March 2023 | Page 8

[ Cover Story ]

[ Cover Story ]

Outokumpu : pioneering sustainable stainless steel with Circle Green

Outokumpu ’ s mill in Tornio , Finland , where Circle Green sustainable stainless steel is produced .
Outokumpu is pioneering the production of emission-minimised stainless steel in the global market . Its Circle Green product line has an astonishing 92 % lower carbon footprint than the global average , and the company now provides product specific carbon footprint data for many of its products . Stainless Steel World spoke to Max Menzel , Head of Sustainability & Technical Customer Service , to learn how Outokumpu is shaping the stainless steel market for a cleaner future .
By Joanne McIntyre
Max began by highlighting that Outokoumpu is currently the only stainless steel producer that is SBTi ( Science Based Target initiative ) approved , which is an outstanding benchmark to achieve . With a clearly stated ambition of reducing its carbon footprint from the baseline of 2016 to 2030 by 42 %, the company is well on track . Its sustainable stainless steel production has the lowest average carbon footprint available . “ Outokumpu has achieved the lowest carbon footprint in the industry , 70 % lower than the global average , while the Circle Green line is up to 92 % lower . Our carbon footprint is approx . 1.8 tons of CO 2 per ton of stainless steel produced .” Sustainability has been an important focus for the company for many years .
Significantly , Outokumpu promotes full transparency in the industry to achieve these goals . This means covering all Scope 1 , 2 and 3 emissions when reporting emissions and a commitment to provide this detailed information for every product . “ We ’ re the only European stainless steel producer to provide full transparency on all three scopes to
8 Stainless Steel World March 2023 www . stainless-steel-world . net