Outokumpu’s stainless steel helps to build a more sustainable infrastructure with up to 75% lower carbon footprint compared to the global industry average
Outokumpu supports its customers’ green transition with verified environmental data – new stainless steel environmental product declarations published with lower carbon footprint
To support its customers’ targets to reduce their carbon emissions from supply chain, Outokumpu, the global leader in sustainable stainless steel, has published new environmental product declarations (EPDs) that provide externally verified environmental data on its stainless steel products. Outokumpu is driving the green transition by providing stainless steel with up to 75% lower carbon footprint compared to the global industry average*. In 2023, Outokumpu’s products reduced our customers’ emissions globally by 12 million tons compared to the global average of stainless steel.
Low-carbon emission stainless steel has a pivotal role in the green transition. The entire steel sector accounts for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet society will require significant amounts of energy and steel also in the future. By 2050, steel industry emissions need to be reduced by 90% compared to 2022 levels.
“Outokumpu aims to be its customers’ first choice in sustainable stainless steel. These externally verified EPDs help to improve data transparency in the stainless steel value chain and make it easier for our customers, for example in the construction, energy and marine industries, to choose materials that help them to reduce their carbon emissions. We at Outokumpu see the EPDs as an important opportunity to communicate the impact of our products in a highly transparent way”, says Heidi Peltonen, Vice President for Sustainability at Outokumpu.
Based on vast lifecycle analysis
The EPDs are a standardized** way of providing data about the environmental impacts of a product. The published EPDs cover three stainless steel product groups: austenitic, ferritic and duplex. For each product group, the EPDs will cover both cold and hot rolled stainless steels, totaling the number of EPD documents to six.
The EPDs give information on a wide range of environmental impact indicators including carbon emissions, resource use, outflows and waste indicators. The calculations are based on vast lifecycle analysis that cover the stainless steel lifecycle from raw material extraction to manufacturing as well as end-of-life processing and recycling potential.
“The global demand for low carbon footprint materials is expected to grow. We are answering the demand by publishing these EPDs that provide even more specific data than before by covering a wider variety of stainless steel grades. Even though these new EPDs are not directly comparable to our previous ones, we can see that the carbon footprint of our stainless steel continues to be among the lowest in the industry”, Peltonen continues.
In addition to the EPDs, which cover a wide perspective on the environmental impact of Outokumpu’s products, Outokumpu also provides product carbon footprint calculations. Both data sources provide Outokumpu’s customers verified and transparent data that help them to calculate their supply chain emissions.
*) Outokumpu stainless steel CO2 emissions (2023): 1.52 kg CO2e per kg of stainless steel. Global average CO2 emissions (2023): 7 kg CO2e per kg of stainless steel. (Outokumpu’s calculation based on data provided by CRU, worldstainless and Kobolde & Partners AB)
**) The process for verification and establishing the validity of an EPD is in accordance with EN ISO 14025 and ISO 21930 standards.
