The guidelines and goals specified and described below were defined for the strategic spheres of action.
CLIMATE ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being 
SDG 6 – Clean water and sanitation 
SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy 
SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth 
SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities 
SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production 
SDG 13 – Climate action 
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
voestalpine continues to improve its carbon footprint by clearly committing itself to low-carbon production.
voestalpine is also working towards the long-term climate goal of Net Zero 2050 through extensive research and development of new technologies, frequently via cross-sector cooperation agreements and projects. We also engage in an open and constructive dialogue with stakeholders such as political decision makers and environmental organizations.
Process-related emissions cannot be entirely avoided because existing production processes have certain chemical and physical properties. voestalpine operates its production facilities pursuant to the principle that the best available technologies must be applied as appropriate and in an economically viable fashion. We also develop new approaches that aim to both minimize environmentally relevant effects on the air, soil, and water as best as possible and optimize the use of resources. voestalpine also maintains its leading position in environmentally friendly steel production and taps into the additional potentials of the circular economy.
We have defined a target corridor of between 4 MWh and 4.5 MWh per ton of product for the specific total energy consumption; the target corridor for the recycling rate is between 27% and 30%.
Furthermore, the plan is to increase the use of scrap in crude steel production by 50% by 2030. By 2025, all relevant production facilities should have implemented a standardized environmental management system (EMS) and obtained certifications pursuant to ISO 14001 or EMAS.
voestalpine is committed to the global climate goals and has a clear plan for decarbonizing steel production with its greentec steel program.
Hence the voestalpine Group undertakes as part of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to lower its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. SBTi reviews these targets and validates that they conform to the Paris Agreement’s climate goals based on the current state of the art in science.
voestalpine achieves Net Zero by 2050.
As part of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), the voestalpine Group has undertaken to lower the sum total of its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 30% and its Scope 3 emissions by 25%—in each case by 2029 relative to the baseline year 2019. Achievement of the 2029 target is also subject to external factors and influencing variables such as raw materials, energy, and the economy.
The High Performance Metals Division has already put in place a steel production process that is based on the electric arc furnace (EAF) route. By 2029, it will have lowered its CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) by 50%.
By 2035, the production activities of the Metal Forming Division—the Group’s center of competence for highly refined sections, tubes, and precision strip steel products as well as for ready-to-install system components made of pressed, stamped, and roll-formed parts— will be climate neutral.
SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
SDG 4 – Quality education SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production 
SDG 16 – Peace, justice, and strong institutions SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
We pay attention to transparency in the supply chain and work toward ensuring responsible procurement.
General Procurement
voestalpine believes that creating sustainable supply chains consistently makes an important contribution to the Group’s Sustainability Strategy. We started to implement the multi-year “Sustainability in the Supply Chain” roadmap in June 2022 and will continually adjust this to changing parameters over time. In order to fulfill the requirements of the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG)), the implementation work began with those companies in Germany that are directly subject to the Act. voestalpine ensures that its selected suppliers comply with ecological and social principles based on a risk classification model that uses predefined sustainability criteria.
Both the requisite approach and the action steps are derived from this classification. The given requirements were included in voestalpine’s Code of Conduct for Business Partners that was updated accordingly and adopted by the Management Board of voestalpine AG in March 2023. In 2024, suppliers worldwide will be informed about and made aware of the Group-wide sustainability goals, supply chain transparency requirements, and the updated Code of Conduct for Business Partners.
In November 2022, several virtual sessions were held to brief all of the voestalpine Group’s buyers on the Group’s Sustainability Strategy and related activities, particularly in procurement.
voestalpine ensures through Group-wide buyer conferences and the three-stage Purchasing PowerAcademy that its employees in procurement are given ongoing training and CPD opportunities with respect to sustainability and compliance and that they are made aware of these and other issues.
The procurement process is continually optimized in order to ensure compliance. The voestalpine Code of Conduct forms the basis for key actions and decisions in this respect. This ensures that active suppliers meet voestalpine’s key sustainability criteria in the medium and long term.
Raw Materials
The application of closed-loop concepts together with voestalpine customers guarantees maximum efficiency in the recycling process for raw and recyclable materials.
voestalpine faces the challenge of continually optimizing its supply chains jointly with its suppliers. Regular visits to the sources of raw materials and pre-materials, especially mines and deposits, are a fixed element of this process. Together, we develop methods for designing efficient supply chains. New suppliers are assessed in terms of corporate responsibility, quality, and performance, and are included in the supplier portfolio when the evaluation findings are positive. The Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) project was used to screen our raw material supply chains from the bottom up, examining key factors pertaining to corporate responsibility. voestalpine ensures that absolutely all of its raw materials are subjected to this process, thus mitigating risk over the long term.
Based on reports using the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT), we ensure that all materials procured on behalf of the Group are “conflict free.”
By 2025, voestalpine will evaluate 70% of the Group’s total purchasing volume (especially 100% of all critical raw material deliveries) based on a defined rule book using sustainability criteria.
Our active suppliers meet voestalpine’s sustainability criteria.
The primary responsibility of raw materials procurement management is to secure the long-term, competitive supply of both raw materials and energy. A high degree of integration into upstream and downstream processes, scenario planning, and adaptive supply concepts serve to minimize potential risks.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
SDG 4 – Quality education SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth 
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
voestalpine develops innovative solutions for its customers and ensures that sustainability plays a key role in the development of both products and processes. Metallurgical know-how and processing expertise working in concert are the source of the company’s high-quality products.
voestalpine continually refines its products and processes, and conducts research on novel technologies, to ensure that it remains the benchmark for both resource efficiency and environmental standards.
We pursue active know-how management, both internally and externally, and consider this the key to our success in research and development. In its R&D activities, the company places great store in long-term and trusting cooperation arrangements not only with scientific partners, but also with customers and suppliers.
voestalpine itself attends to the training and continuing professional development of its researchers. Both the sharing of knowledge within the Group and exchanges among professionals leverage synergies. Knowledge available throughout the Group along with activities aimed at developing sustainable processes and products are successfully brought together in cross-divisional projects.
Our R&D projects serve to achieve sustainability as per our innovation policies. Moreover, large projects also take specific sustainability criteria into account.
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production SDG 13 – Climate action
voestalpine offers its customers sustainable products and services that make positive contributions—environmentally, economically, and socially—throughout their entire useful life. Certified life cycle assessments help to reduce the carbon footprint of voestalpine’s customers.
voestalpine supports holistic, comprehensive, and integrated analyses and assessments of materials (life cycle assessments/LCAs) as well as of all process and value chains within the parameters of the circular economy, also known as “circularity.” Life cycle assessments will be carried out for all key product groups by 2025, taking all phases of the value chain into account, in order to compile a catalog of their environmental impact.
HUMAN RESOURCES
SDG 4 – Quality education 
SDG 5 – Gender equality SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth SDG 16 – Peace, justice, and strong institutions
High levels of commitment and above-average employee loyalty are key pillars of our success. We rely on a corporate culture that is defined by diversity and respect and on providing solid employee training and CPD to all groups of employees.
Corporate culture: We create a respectful corporate culture in which we expect and encourage trust, diversity, self-determination, and personal responsibility. voestalpine’s culture, as a symbol of its Group-wide identity, is continually being refined in this sense.
Diversity: We value the individuality of all our employees and their capabilities—irrespective of gender, age, origin, religion, sexual orientation, or potential neurodiversity & dis/ability—and create the conditions for equal opportunity as well as work that maintains people’s health and is appropriate to life’s different phases.
Training and continuing professional development (CPD): Targeted measures help voestalpine’s employees gain qualifications and thus broaden their career opportunities. We believe, furthermore, that both training young people and encouraging lifelong learning are long-term determinants of the company’s success.
Employee loyalty: To ensure long-term employee retention, we regularly evaluate the level of their commitment to the company through a worldwide employee survey. To increase this value over the long term, we develop suitable measures after analyzing the survey findings and continually track and measure implementation and target achievement. voestalpine also takes measures to ensure the availability of qualified and motivated employees in line with demand and for the long term.
We create the general framework for equal opportunities and work to raise the percentage of women in executive positions, technical fields, and among technical apprentices. voestalpine has set itself the goal of increasing the proportion of women in management positions from 14% to 18% by 2030.
We ensure a diverse and international range of target group-specific training and further training courses, continuously increase the number of apprentices and trainees in line with demand, and also offer internal management training courses.
We carry out employee surveys at regular intervals. The aim is to increase the engagement value in the long term and to increase employee loyalty.
health & safety
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
We promote our employees’ health and continually enhance the safety of our workplaces. Employee safety and health are key concerns at voestalpine and thus have highest priority.
We work to further reduce the frequency of accidents and to improve the health of all employees of the voestalpine Group—wherever they work, whatever their position.
We see Group-wide safety standards as the foundation of a successful health & safety-related corporate culture.
Zero Accidents strategy: moving towards our vision of “zero fatalities, zero accidents at work, and no occupational illnesses.”
We are continuing to work on reducing the lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), which is set to fall by a further 30% to 5.5 by 2030. The LTIFR indicates the frequency of accidents based on the number of reportable workplace accidents entailing more than three sick days per one million hours of work performed. Further information can be found in the chapter “health & safety.”
COMPLIANCE AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
SDG 5 – Gender equality SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth SDG 16 – Peace, justice, and strong institutions
Compliance
We have implemented an efficient Compliance management system that comprises “risk analysis/prevention,” “identification,” and “reaction.”
We commit to complying with all applicable laws in all the countries in which voestalpine operates. We believe that Compliance is the expression of a culture rooted in ethical and moral principles.
We commit to upholding human rights in accordance with the International Bill of Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights, and we support the UN Global Compact (UNGC).
Corporate Governance
In order to ensure that managing and controlling the Group responsibly serves to create sustainable shareholder value in the long term, the Group’s Management Board and Supervisory Board undertook as early as 2003 to comply with the Austrian Corporate Governance Code (the “Code”). In the business year 2023/24, voestalpine AG complied with the Code’s mandatory “L Rules” as well as with the “C Rules” (excepting C Rule 39 from which it deviated) and all “R Rules.”
Compliance violations must be prevented. It is our goal, therefore, to sensitize all employees to these issues and ensure that they know the Group’s policies.
STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
voestalpine is in contact with all relevant stakeholders and engages with them in a responsible, solution-oriented, and transparent dialogue. Stakeholder management at voestalpine is based on established sustainability criteria and standards.
voestalpine is in regular contact with a wide range of stakeholder groups through its Management Board, as well as its executive and non-executive personnel. Numerous formats such as professional discussions and expert roundtables, conferences and trade shows, as well as analyst and investor meetings are used to this end. Subject to its Code of Conduct, voestalpine actively participates in a wide variety of bodies serving advocacy groups, trade associations, and lobbying campaigns, but also presents the company’s concerns to these bodies. voestalpine also supports international and local platforms as well as initiatives that serve to promote climate-neutral and competitive economic centers.
SOCIETY
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals
voestalpine’s Group companies are not just successful worldwide: They also engage socially with the environment in which they operate.
The company’s relationships with key local stakeholders that have evolved through the years provide insight into social, cultural, and environmental issues facing the given communities. voestalpine reviews specific opportunities for action in order to strengthen the social compact and enhance the well-being of humans and the natural environment that are affected by its activities. voestalpine supports non-profit projects pertaining to educational, youth-centered, cultural, and social affairs. We are committed to a shared set of values and aim to improve the lives of people in the areas surrounding our locations.