A happy new year

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you are returning from your holidays refreshed and energized for the challenges that 2022 will bring. Good intentions are great, but positive action is what really counts. That is why at Ovako we are proud to start the new year with fully carbon-neutral operations. Carbon Neutral Now, as we call this initiative, means that all the remaining emissions in our production are now fully offset by verified contributions in global projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. So that all Ovako products now come from fully carbon-neutral production.

We have long been passionate about offering specialty steels that bring tangible benefits to our customers and society in general. That drives our ambition to be a leader in high-performing specialty steel products that enable lighter designs, major energy and CO2 savings, and some truly remarkable engineering. This is based on more than 500 grades of steel bar, tube, and ring for the most demanding manufacturing applications in the automotive, mining, energy and other sectors. As just one example, our steel rings are used in some one third of all the world’s wind turbines. It has been estimated that only one year’s supply of these mission-critical components, for this increasingly important renewable energy solution, delivers life-time savings of 260 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Over the years, close collaboration with our customers has allowed us to continuously reinvent and upgrade our offering many times over. While always seeking to improve, our aim remains constant – to boost productivity, ensure safety, and secure sustainable processes that drive growth.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. And for choosing a steel that is based to 97% on recycled content.

A good starting point

There is a lot of talk about green steel, hydrogen steel or climate-neutral steel and it is all quite confusing. And when you drill down deeper, the timelines cited for commercial delivery (if they are cited at all) are often far in the future. Or they only account for a small portion of total production. We believe the world needs a more immediate and tangible solution.

In addition to a leading low carbon footprint, our starting point is based on 97% recycled steel, 100% fossil-free electricity and an 80% CO2 reduction target for 2030, based on heating our steel with 100% fossil-free hydrogen and oxygen. You can read more about this using the link below.

A sustainable development

Starting now, to bring our already very low carbon footprint to zero, we are buying voluntary carbon offsets. With this we offset all our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064:2018. We choose projects that are verified by either The Gold Standard or VCS (Verified Carbon standard) when selecting carbon offset projects, with the purpose to reduce global carbon emissions, thereby contributing to the transition toward a global sustainable society. We are also committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Science Based Targets initiative (on the 1.5°C target level) and we support the UN-led Race to Zero Campaign.

The use of offsets will gradually decrease as we continue to invest in new technology and improve our processes, but we will continue for as long as it takes. We divide our offsets between renewable energy projects and nature-based solutions. One example of the first is wind-generated electricity in the Republic of South Africa. This will make a positive contribution to the optimization and diversification of the country's energy mix, which is currently dominated by coal-fired power plants.

We believe that while we continue to achieve major milestones in carbon reductions in our own operations, it is still our responsibility to take immediate carbon-neutrality actions for the benefit of our customers and society. By investing in offsets, we ensure that any CO2 released into the atmosphere from our production will be balanced by an equivalent amount of carbon removals. All projects that we will support are carefully evaluated and reviewed. Please read more about our climate compensation efforts.

how Ovako's new machining guidelines can help optimize your set up for machining operations.
In our second webinar, January 25 2022,15:00-16:00 CET, Patrik Ölund, Vice President of R&D, will explain the quantification of clean steel and it’s dramatic influence on the fatigue life of critical components.
In our third webinar on February 9, 15:00-16:00 CET, Katarina Kangert, Head of Sustainability and Safety and Göran Nyström, Group Marketing and Technology, will talk about our Carbon Neutral Now initiative.

Please click below to register for all three digital events.