Worldsteel's expert group on life cycle assessment held a successful meeting at Jernkontoret

Some important results of the meeting were:

• Work on steel products' contribution to sustainable development of society is strengthened. World Steel Association gathers experts in life cycle assessment, marketing and sustainability reporting in a new committee under the president with the task to lead and strengthen the strategic work on steel products sustainability and environmental benefits within the market. The LCA experts group, the project on the recycling of steel in various sectors and the work on the global sustainability reporting is coordinated by and supports this committee.

• The publication to demonstrate steel's role in a circular economy was presented. Worldsteel with contributions from the group and case studies from members developed the publication "Steel in the Circular Economy – A lifecycle perspective". It shows how steel enables and contributes to a sustainable society, in a circular economy, when the whole life cycle of steel products are taken into account. It emphasizes the need for policy makers to have a lifecycle perspective when legislation is designed.
  Steel is an integral part of the global circular economy (worldsteel.org)
  
  
• Good life cycle assessment requires good data and assessment methods for all phases of a product's life cycle. Several important steps are taken to contribute to global as well as regional development for example:
  
  - The update of the common global database with detailed environmental data from raw material to steel products is running well, the number of participating companies is larger than at the previous data collection. The plan is to be ready by year-end.
  
  - Based on the common methodology for life cycle assessments, work moves to the next stage in developing guidelines (Product category rules, PCR) in accordance with ISO and European standards.
  
  - Extended dialogue in the value chain is pursued to tailor datasets according to our customer’s needs.
  
  

In the autumn the launch of the worldsteel Internet-based LCA training programs is foreseen. The so-called Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs are prepared in cooperation with professors or universities. The LCA-group contributes to the production of these interactive courses for different target groups. The aim is to increase the knowledge of life cycle assessments within and outside the steel industry.

Edwin Basson, Director General of worldsteel, about the new publication ‘Steel in the circular economy - A life cycle perspective’:

 “In a world of finite resources we must leave the outdated ‘take, make, consume and dispose’ mentality behind and move toward a circular economy model for optimal resource efficiency. To achieve this we need a life cycle approach that measures the social, economic and environmental impact of a product at each stage in its life cycle. We believe that life cycle thinking must become a key requirement for all manufacturing decisions going forward.”

Further information:

Zofia Tucinska, Department of Energy and Environment
zofia.tucinska@jernkontoret.se 
Telephone: +46 8 679 17 24