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ArcelorMittal strives to make steel production more sustainable and to minimise its environmental impact. As a leader in steel manufacturing, we are committed to making steel production more sustainable at every stage. In addition, 95% of our steel industrial operations now have ISO 14001 certification, an international standard for environmental management systems.
- Our approach to Granite® is part of ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe’s Nspired by Nature range, and it is certified as a product not containing hexavalent chromium or heavy metals.
- R2P - Ready to Paint coating on thin gauge, the cold rolled product, is an efficient solution to reduce environmental impact at customer plants; for example, for door production.
- Insulated sandwich panels are contributing to energy efficiency in the most demanding buildings such as cold rooms for the food industry and supermarkets.
“Safe Sustainable Steel” makes up the core values of ArcelorMittal. As such, our innovative products and solutions for construction are continuously contributing to the reduction of environmental impacts on buildings throughout their life.
Environmental impacts
In 2012, the EU-28’s construction sector accounted for:
- 40% of the total final energy consumption
- 40% of CO2 Emission
- 30% of consumption of natural resources
- 30% of waste generation
- 20% of water consumption
Consequently, the EU commission has started to adapt the EU directive regarding environmental assessment - the EIA Directive.
Useful information
MoreAccording to the European Commission, "The newly amended Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive (2014/52/EU) entered into force on 15 May 2014 to simplify the rules for assessing the potential effects of projects on the environment. Member States have to apply these rules as from 16 May 2017 at the latest." (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eia/review.htm)
The Holistic Environmental Impact assessment for buildings is defined by European Standard EN 15978 in the scope of CEN TC 350 work programme. It takes into account the full life cycle of the building, including end of life, recycling after demolition, and energy production at the building level.
Related news & technical articles
ArcelorMittal releases Climate Action Report 2
15 October 2021ArcelorMittal has published its second group climate action report, following the first group report published in May 2019 and the European climate action report published in May 2020.
Corporate NewsNew investment in decarbonisation technologies at ArcelorMittal Gent plant
5 October 2021ArcelorMittal Belgium will reduce CO2 emissions by 3.9 million tonnes per year by 2030 by building a 2.5 million-tonne direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and two electric furnaces to operate alongside its state-of-the-art blast furnace that is ready to take waste wood and plastics as a substitute for fossil carbon.
Corporate NewsReducing the carbon footprint with steel sheet piles: EcoSheetPile™ & EcoSheetPile™ Plus
2 September 2021Decarbonisation is the most important aspect of ArcelorMittal’s long-term strategy. In line with the Paris Agreement’s goals and the European Green Deal, ArcelorMittal is committing to reduce European CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. The company’s new brand, XCarb®, is designed to bring together all of ArcelorMittal’s reduced, low, and zero-carbon products and steelmaking activities.
Product NewsArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products launches EPDs for XCarb® recycled and renewably produced range
19 August 2021To support the construction industry’s climate goals, ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products announced that Environmental Production Declarations (EPDs) are now available for two of its low carbon products. The EPDs provide a life-cycle assessment, detailing the complete environmental footprint of steel sections & merchant bars and EcoSheetPile™ Plus in ArcelorMittal’s recently launched XCarb® recycled and renewably produced range.
Product News
ArcelorMittal releases Climate Action Report 2
ArcelorMittal has published its second group climate action report, following the first group report published in May 2019 and the European climate action report published in May 2020.
Climate Action Report 2 (2021)
In the new report, ArcelorMittal has for the first time announced a 2030 global carbon emissions intensity reduction target of 25%. It has also increased its European 2030 carbon emissions intensity reduction target to 35% from 30% previously announced. All targets are on a scope 1 and 2 basis. The company had previously announced a net zero by 2050 ambition in September 2020.
2030 target breakdown
The new climate action report provides a roadmap that illustrates ArcelorMittal’s current thinking on the journey to net zero steelmaking. Five key levers are identified as the stepping-stones to achieve net zero by 2050. These are:
- Steelmaking transformation: In the course of the coming decades, the steel industry will undergo a transformation of the assets used to make steel on a scale not seen for over 100 years. This includes in a first phase the transition from coal (in the blast furnace) to natural gas (in a Direct Reduced Iron – DRI – plant) as a precursor to green hydrogen DRI.
- Energy transformation: The energy used to make steel in future years will undergo a further and more radical transition, from high-emitting fossil fuel-based energy to low and zero-carbon emissions forms of energy. This includes green hydrogen, circular forms of carbon, and CCUS technologies.
- Increased use of scrap: As well as using scrap in the EAF, ArcelorMittal will increase the use of scrap in blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steelmaking.
- Sourcing clean electricity: ArcelorMittal will focus on increasing the amount of low and zero-carbon emissions electricity it consumes. The company plans to do this by purchasing renewable energy certificates and by direct power purchase agreements (PPA) with suppliers from renewable projects.
- Offsetting residual emissions: There are likely to remain residual emissions for which either there is no feasible technological solution or the solution involves excessively high economic or social costs. For these emissions, ArcelorMittal will buy high-quality offsets or launch projects to generate high-quality carbon credits.
Click here to read the full press release.
Click here to download the report.
Text:
ArcelorMittal
Constructalia
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ArcelorMittal
Report:
ArcelorMittal
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ArcelorMittal
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New investment in decarbonisation technologies at ArcelorMittal Gent plant
ArcelorMittal Belgium will reduce CO2 emissions by 3.9 million tonnes per year by 2030 by building a 2.5 million-tonne direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and two electric furnaces to operate alongside its state-of-the-art blast furnace that is ready to take waste wood and plastics as a substitute for fossil carbon.
ArcelorMittal signs letter of intent with the governments of Belgium and Flanders, supporting €1.1 billion investment in decarbonisation technologies at ArcelorMittal Gent plant
ArcelorMittal has announced that it has signed a letter of intent with the Governments of Belgium and Flanders, supporting a €1.1 billion project to build a 2.5 million-tonne DRI plant at its site in Ghent, as well as two new electric furnaces.
A DRI plant uses natural gas, and potentially hydrogen, instead of coal to reduce iron ore, resulting in a large reduction in CO2 emissions compared with blast furnace ironmaking. The two electric furnaces will melt the DRI and scrap steel, which will then be transformed in the steel shop into steel slabs and then further processed into finished products.
Once the DRI and electric furnaces are built, there will be a transition period during which production will move gradually from blast furnace A to the DRI and electric furnaces, after which blast furnace A will be closed as it reaches the end of its life. By 2030, this will result in a reduction of around three million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
The support of both the national and the Flanders governments in this project is crucial given the significant cost associated with the transition to carbon-neutral steelmaking.
Approval from the European Commission for the funding support will also be required.
Smart Carbon and DRI synergies
The DRI plant will operate alongside Gent’s blast furnace B, which restarted production in March 2021 following a significant investment of €195 million.
The combination of the new DRI plant alongside a sustainable, state-of-the-art blast furnace enables the creation of unique synergies in ArcelorMittal Belgium’s roadmap to climate-neutral steelmaking.
Combined, the various initiatives will enable ArcelorMittal Belgium to reduce its CO2 emissions by 3.9 million tonnes per year by 2030 (on a scope 1 and 2 basis, compared with 2018), which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 848 172 cars being driven for a year.
As a result, ArcelorMittal Belgium will make a significant contribution to ArcelorMittal Europe’s ambition to reduce CO2 emissions intensity by 35% by 2030 and to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Roadmap to 2050
The hybrid model approach of Smart Carbon and Innovative DRI steelmaking in Ghent fits into ArcelorMittal Belgium’s CO2 roadmap which consists of three axes:
- Further improvement of material and energy efficiency as well as increased scrap usage
- The implementation of Smart Carbon technologies (replacing fossil carbon with circular and waste carbon; reforming waste gas into useful chemical compounds and separating CO2 for reuse or storage)
- Hydrogen - replacing carbon as a reductant with hydrogen (ultimately green hydrogen, when it is available commercially)
Text:
ArcelorMittal
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ArcelorMittal Belgium
ArcelorMittal Europe
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Reducing the carbon footprint with steel sheet piles: EcoSheetPile™ & EcoSheetPile™ Plus
Decarbonisation is the most important aspect of ArcelorMittal’s long-term strategy. In line with the Paris Agreement’s goals and the European Green Deal, ArcelorMittal is committing to reduce European CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. The company’s new brand, XCarb®, is designed to bring together all of ArcelorMittal’s reduced, low, and zero-carbon products and steelmaking activities.
EcoSheetPile™
Introduced in 2018, ArcelorMittal Europe - Long Products Sheet Piling's EcoSheetPile™ range is manufactured through the electric arc furnace (EAF) route with 520 kg of CO2 emissions per tonne of finished product. To put this into perspective, in 2018 the average CO2 emissions for the global steel industry including all types of production routes (conventional and electric-based) were around 1.85 tonnes per tonne of steel products*. The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of the EcoSheetPile™ product range includes a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and is based on the EAF route using 100% recycled material.
The new EcoSheetPile™ Plus: part of ‘XCarb® recycled and renewably produced’
The new EcoSheetPile™ Plus brand, an essential part of the ‘XCarb® recycled and renewably produced’ initiative for long products, is based on the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route using 100% recycled material and - additionally - 100% renewable electricity.
This allows for the production of the new EcoSheetPile™ Plus range with the unprecedented Global Warming Potential (A1-A3) of 0.37 tonne of CO2-eq per tonne of EcoSheetPile™ Plus produced.
The specific Environmental Product Declaration for EcoSheetPile™ Plus is based on a dedicated ‘Cradle-to-Gate with options’ life-cycle analysis. It was approved by an independent reviewer according to ISO 14025 and EN 15804 standards and published by the German Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU) official programme holder. It also comes with a Guarantee of Origin certifying the renewable electricity sources audited by an external third party.
The most sustainable construction material
Thanks to the possibility of reuse, steel sheet piles integrate perfectly into the circular economy concept. ArcelorMittal sheet piles can be reused up to twelve times before they are recycled as scrap for the EAF-based steel making process.
In addition, further carbon footprint reductions can be achieved thanks to project-based assessments with fully engineered package solutions relying on our high performance and tailor-made sheet pile sections in combination with high strength steel grades.
Independent third-party infrastructure impact studies show that ArcelorMittal's innovative EcoSheetPile™ Plus design can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 58% in the full scope of LCA (cradle-to-grave) compared to conventional construction methods**.
ArcelorMittal’s steel sheet piles are manufactured with transparent indicators for their environmental performance in certified facilities with regard to product quality management and where employees are protected by Health & Safety policies. This makes them environmentally-friendly construction products.
The environmental impact of ArcelorMittal’s hot rolled steel sheet piles is documented in an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) registered at the Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU) Germany and available here.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling
Constructalia
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ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling
* https://www.sustainablefinance.hsbc.com/-/media/gbm/sustainable/attachments/4016-hsbc-csf-steel-report-2019v5.pdf
* https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/metals-and-mining/our-insights/decarbonization-challenge-for-steel#
* https://www.worldsteel.org/en/dam/jcr:c3acc5fd-e3c2-458c-a2cc-8c4880b9334c/Steel%2527s+contribution+to+a+low+carbon+future.pdf
** ArcelorMittal’s SIMIn studies, jointly elaborated with external partners and our R&D teams, are available upon request.
Related link(s)
ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products launches EPDs for XCarb® recycled and renewably produced range
To support the construction industry’s climate goals, ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products announced that Environmental Production Declarations (EPDs) are now available for two of its low carbon products. The EPDs provide a life-cycle assessment, detailing the complete environmental footprint of steel sections & merchant bars and EcoSheetPile™ Plus in ArcelorMittal’s recently launched XCarb® recycled and renewably produced range.
Reducing the carbon footprint of buildings and infrastructure
Speaking about the first product-specific EPDs to be offered, ArcelorMittal Steligence® CEO Olivier Vassart says that “thanks to XCarb® recycled and renewably produced, we are able to offer steel produced with a CO2 footprint as low as 0.33 per tonne of sections and merchant bars and 0.37 per tonne for the EcoSheetPile™ Plus brand. Now, with these two EPDs, we can support the construction industry to meet tougher requirements to reduce the embedded carbon footprint of buildings and infrastructure.”
Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia
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ArcelorMittal
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XCarb®: Recycled and renewably produced brochure
ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products launches EPDs for XCarb® recycled and renewably produced range