Environment

SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-BeingSDG 6 – Clean Water and SanitationSDG 7 – Affordable and Clean EnergySDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic GrowthSDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesSDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and ProductionSDG 13 – Climate ActionSDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals

In the voestalpine Group, environmental protection begins with the production facilities, where we strive to make use of the best available technologies, undertake intensive research in order to develop environmentally-friendly steel production processes and products, implement measures to increase efficiency, reduce emissions, achieve energy savings, and–last but not least–facilitate transparent and efficient environmental management.

At all of our production locations, we are committed to the following principles:

• Holistic responsibility for our products
• Optimization of production processes
• Establishment of environmental management systems
• Integration of employees into the process by ensuring that each individual behaves in an environmentally-responsible way
• Open and objective dialogue

As the result of these consistent efforts, voestalpine has a leading position within the European steel industry, for example, with regard to emissions intensity and resource efficiency. Many innovative processes were developed within the company or jointly with industrial partners and used for the first time worldwide at voestalpine.

As of December 31, 2017, 73 of 130 locations (56%) operated an environmental management system in accordance with ISO 14001, and 16 locations were certified according to EMAS.

Emissions in the air, soil and water: minimizing with the best available technologies

Process-related emissions cannot be entirely avoided. We operate our production sites by economically applying the best available technologies, as well as developing new ones, in order to minimize the environmental impact on the air, soil and water as far as possible.

Circular economy & Life Cycle Assessment: an integrated approach to materials

We support the comprehensive and integrated consideration and evaluation of materials (Life Cycle Assessment), as well as all processes and value chains within the context of the circular economy.

Energy and climate policy: commitment to low-carbon production

We are meeting the long-term challenge of decarbonizing business and society both through comprehensive research and development (much of it on a cooperative basis) to create new technologies, and by being involved in an open and constructive stakeholder dialogue with environmental organizations, political decision-makers, and science.

Note on this chapter: Over the past years voestalpine has developed to become a global leading technology and capital goods Group, with around 500 Group companies and locations worldwide. In addition to crude steel production at the primary production sites Linz and Donawitz, since fall 2016 voestalpine has operated a HBI plant in Corpus Christi (Texas, USA), and at several sites also produces components from steel which is partly externally sourced. For that reason, in the chapter on “Environment” it has been necessary to redefine the previously applied “crude steel production” reference values in order to calculate the specific environmental key figures.