Busy December for ResponsibleSteel™
London, December 19th,2017
December has been a busy month for ResponsibleSteel™, with the first meetings of our Mining Working Group, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Working Group, and Interim Council all taking place.
On 1st December we held a Mining Working Group Meeting at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, aiming to develop the ResponsibleSteel™ Standard as it applies to the sourcing of mined material. Participants from ArcelorMittal and AngloAmerican, as well as representatives from Mining Association of Canada, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, Bettercoal and WWF, amongst others, discussed the scope of the group’s work and the challenges of traceability as well as intermediate processing from mine to steel-making, amongst many other issues. The working group agreed to broaden the scope of its work to consider the sourcing of additional raw materials, including scrap and metals for alloys and coatings.
The following week, on Wednesday 6th December the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Working Group met at the HSBC Building, Canary Wharf, to discuss the development of the ResponsibleSteel™ Standard as it applies to Greenhouse Gas emissions. The meeting considered the long term challenges for the steel sector in relation to GHG emissions, and the role of ResponsibleSteel™ in helping the sector to address these challenges. The growing risk of finance sector disinvestment from carbon intensive industries – such as steel – was discussed, as well as the potential for ResponsibleSteel™ to provide a mechanism to encourage investment in carbon reduction technologies. The draft criteria of the ResponsibleSteel™ standard were reviewed, and suggestions put forward for improvements, including proposed approaches for the specification of target and threshold levels for GHG emissions.
Finally, on Friday 8th December, at the DNV-GL Offices, London, we held an Interim Council Meeting, attended by twenty five ResponsibleSteel™ Members, Associates and key stakeholders. New ResponsibleSteel™ Members included CBBM, CDP, HSBC, IndustriALL, Mahindra Sanyo and Tata Steel. Participants reviewed the work of the Funding and Finance Working Group, GHG Working Group and Mining Working Group, and proposed changes to ResponsibleSteel™’s multi stakeholder governance model and standards development procedures, implementing the recommendations of the stakeholder meeting held in September.
Speaking afterwards, Matthew Wenban-Smith, ResponsibleSteel™’s Executive Director said: “It was an excellent meeting – all we hoped for. ResponsibleSteel™ is up and running. We have a core of committed partners from business and civil society, and a technical base to build from. We have a packed agenda for 2018, and we can move forward with confidence. We look forward to growing the membership in the New Year, and will be actively seeking flagship projects to showcase the ResponsibleSteel™ concept at our public launch in 2019.For now we would like to wish our Members, Associates and all our stakeholders our thanks and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year”.
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