The ResponsibleSteel™ principles
Principle 1. Corporate Leadership
Principle 2. Social, Environmental, and Governance Management Systems
Principle 3. Occupational and Community Health and Safety
Principle 4. Labour Rights
Principle 5. Human Rights
Principle 6. Local Communities
Principle 7. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
Principle 8. Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Principle 9. Noise, Emissions, Effluents, and Waste
Principle 10. Water Stewardship
Principle 11. Biodiversity
Principle 12. Decommissioning and Closure
ResponsibleSteel™ deployment of the Sustainable Development Europe programme
Driving the responsible production and sourcing of steel, ResponsibleSteel™ is the steel industry’s first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative. ArcelorMittal has played a pivotal role in establishing this standard since 2015, and this pertinent work continues.
What is ResponsibleSteel™?
ResponsibleSteel™ is a not-for-profit organisation developing sustainability performance standards and an independent third-party certification programme for the steel value chain. At its heart, it is a multi-stakeholder collaboration between business and civil society. This ground-breaking initiative now involves over 70 members and associates, made up of companies and civil society organisations from around the world.
Alan Knight, Head of Sustainable Development at ArcelorMittal, notes: “Responsible production techniques and high ethical and business standards are becoming increasingly important to our customers, and ultimately to their customers and consumers. We want to get to a point where steel users and purchasers have total confidence in their choices.”
Our approach
We know the importance of creating a standard to ensure that steel industry customers – and thereby consumers – can be confident that the steel they use has been sourced and produced responsibly at every stage.
By creating a multi-stakeholder forum to build trust and achieve consensus, ResponsibleSteel™ aims to enhance the responsible sourcing, production, use, and recycling of steel through the development of standards, certification, and related tools.
In November 2019, ResponsibleSteel™ published a performance standard for steel making sites, and in 2020 we considered how it handles raw materials and other supply chain issues. Members using the standard will be able to gain competitive advantage by using the standards to inform customers of the credibility and rigour that has gone into auditing their social and environmental performance.
The ResponsibleSteel™ performance standard – with 12 environmental, social, and governance principles - was published in November 2019.
ArcelorMittal has been a driving force in the creation of ResponsibleSteel™ and is represented on the Board of Directors. In developing the ResponsibleSteel™ standard, ArcelorMittal has been working with other steel companies such as Blue Scope, Voestalpine, and Aperam, together with a range of stakeholders across the steel value chain: Anglo American; automotive makers Daimler and BMW; civil society organisations Mighty Earth, IUCN, and the Climate Group; the bank HSBC, and the global union IndustriAll.
Having run pilot audits across key sites in 2018 and 2019 whilst the standard was in development, ArcelorMittal began the process of certifying various sites across the group in 2020, including the ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products division.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Luxembourg
Constructalia
Images:
ResponsibleSteel™