On March 15th 2024, ResponsibleSteel launched public consultations on:
The first draft of the downstream chain of custody standard and related issues is published for a 60-day public consultation. Please find relevant documents below:
Please submit feedback on the draft downstream chain of custody standard by May 14th via this Microsoft form or by completing this Excel sheet and emailing it to standards@responsiblesteel.org.
The proposed test phase revisions to the requirements of Principle 3 of the ResponsibleSteel International Standard regarding responsible sourcing of input materials is published for a 30-day public consultation. Please find the relevant document below:
Please submit feedback on revisions to Principle 3 by April 14th via this Microsoft form or by completing this Excel sheet and emailing it to standards@responsiblesteel.org.
If you have any questions regarding either of these consultations, please contact the ResponsibleSteel Secretariat at standards@responsiblesteel.org.
A public consultation was conducted on proposed test phase revisions to Principle 10 over December 2023 – January 2024. A summary of comments received during the consultation is available here.
Between January and February 2024, ResponsibleSteel convened a members working group to develop proposed revisions to the Responsible Sourcing of Input Materials requirements (Principle 3). This responds to feedback received during the test phase of the requirements. Proposed amends are currently out for public consultation.
Both the proposed amends to Principle 3 and Principle 10, if approved, will be integrated into a new version of the ResponsibleSteel International Standard in mid-2024.
The following areas of development are planned for 2024. Details on how to participate will be shared in the coming months. Please contact the secretariat if you have any questions about standards development.
Standard Version 2.0, approved and published in September 2022
The second round of public consultation on our additional requirements for responsible sourcing and GHG emissions was held from 19 April to 19 June 2021. Over the following 12 months, we continued discussions with members and stakeholders on these requirements. Our members voted on the finalised requirements in August 2022 and these were successfully integrated into the ResponsibleSteel™ International Standard V2.0. Relevant consultation documents can be found here.
On 14 September 2022, we launched the ResponsibleSteel™ International Standard V2.0 to incorporate the additional requirements on GHG emissions and the sourcing of input materials. Version 2.0 can be found here. Note that the official and full review of our Standard will start in 2024.
Below, you can see the full timeline of our work on the ResponsibleSteel™ International Standard, including the requirements on responsible sourcing and GHG emissions.
Jan-July 2020:
Working groups for responsible sourcing, GHG emissions and steel product claims convened and options for draft requirements discussed. Virtual meetings and board discussions held, 1:1 calls with members. Board and member review of draft proposals and options.
Aug-Oct 2020:
Draft requirements, options and consultation questions developed. Public stakeholder consultation.
Nov 2020-March 2021:
Collation and review of stakeholder feedback, webinars, deep dives, working group meetings, and 1:1 calls with members and stakeholders. Review of draft requirements. Board review of revised draft.
April-May 2021:
Public consultation on responsible sourcing and GHG requirements.
June 2021-June 2022:
Collation and review of stakeholder feedback, webinars, deep dives, working group meetings and 1:1 calls with members and stakeholders. Finalisation of requirements.
July-August 2022:
Standards, Assurance and Claims Committee review of process and recommendation to the Board. Board review and formal membership vote and Board ratification.
On 23 June 2021, we launched version 1.1 of the ResponsibleSteel™ Standard to incorporate additional guidance, interpretations and an urgent revision we developed since the launch of version 1.0 in November 2019. Version 1.1 can be found here and a questions & answers document on the urgent revision here.
February 2017:
The first ‘straw man’ ResponsibleSteel™ draft Standard was published. It contained high-level principles and criteria, which were discussed with members and stakeholders over the course of the next year.
05 June to 05 August 2018:
Initial 60-day period of public consultation was held on a more comprehensive draft (version 2-0) specifying 10 principles, with associated criteria and indicators divided into threshold and target levels of performance. Over 600 comments were received and taken into account in developing a third draft (version 3-0).
11 February to 11 April 2019:
2nd public 60-day consultation on the ResponsibleSteel™ draft Standard (version 3-0), resulting in more than 950 comments. Field testing by members took place with the support of our technical partner, DNV-GL.
April to June 2019:
Stakeholder meetings and online consultations to fine-tune the Standard and to inform guidance on implementation continued.
18 June 2019:
ResponsibleSteel™ Members Meeting reviewed draft 4-0 of Standard.
24 June to 24 July 2019:
Additional 30-day open stakeholder review of draft 4-1 of the Standard, which incorporated recommendations from our Members Meeting.
14 August 2019:
ResponsibleSteel™ member review of draft 5-0 of Principle 8, Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
01 to 16 September 2019:
ResponsibleSteel™ member review of draft 5-0 of Standard.
27 September to 09 October:
ResponsibleSteel™ member final content and legal review of draft 5-1 of Standard.
10 October to 17 October:
Minor modifications were made, before draft 5-2 was submitted to our membership for formal voting.
21 to 31 October 2019:
ResponsibleSteel™ membership ballot on Standard.
05 November 2019:
Draft 5-2 was approved by a majority of both business and civil society members of ResponsibleSteel™ and was ratified by our Board. It was published as the ResponsibleSteel™ Standard (version 1-0) on 05 November 2019.
If you want to find out more about the standard development process, please read our International Standards Development Procedures on the Resources page of our website. The procedures describe:
The ResponsibleSteel™ Standard Development Procedures were written to meet the requirements of the ISEAL Standard Setting Code.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the standard development process.