Steel is one of the few materials with a truly closed recycling loop. Steel is not consumed. It is used again and again without any loss of quality or strength. Unlike most materials, steel can be ‘upcycled’ meaning that its quality and strength can be enhanced through recycling.

For this reason steel is a truly sustainable material, through responsible and best-practice processes and procedures Tata Steel strives to produce products which contribute to the global effort to reduce resource use, recycle and reuse materials where possible and to help create the economic and supply frameworks to do this.

Sustainability is at the very heart of what we do. As one of the world’s leading steel producers, we manage our operations responsibly and operate a programme of continuous improvement in our systems and processes to ensure that they meet, and wherever possible exceed, the standards set by regulators.

We work together with our customers to design more sustainable products that contribute to solutions that are lighter, last longer and use fewer resources to produce.

Carbon neutral by 2050 

To meet the ambition of carbon neutrality by 2050, Tata Steel continues to develop and invest in a mix of technologies that will help to significantly reduce emissions over time. One such example is our HIsarna® technology, developed as an alternative to the blast furnace process to make the steel of the future with a minimum 20% reduction in CO₂ emissions. If testing on an industrial scale proves to be a success, this technology could come to market in five to ten years’ time.

At that point Tata Steel could recapture zinc from recycled scrap steel, achieve at least 20% CO₂ reduction and – if combined with CCUS – achieve a reduction in CO₂ emissions of up to 80%. An additional advantage will be the elimination of emissions of nitrogen (NO_x), sulphur oxides and particulate matter.

New Product Development sustainability assessment tool

Tata Steel has developed a sustainability assessment tool which is used for all new product development. The tool takes into account factors such as climate change, water usage, emissions, hazardous substances, resource usage, recycling, social and ethical value and economics. It assesses the sustainability of new products against the products they replace.

Tata Steel received recognition for this tool from global steel trade organisation worldsteel with a ‘Steelie’ for excellence in life cycle assessment in October 2019. Tata Steel has shared the tool with customers and a number of them are interested in adopting and adapting the model for their own purposes, something which Tata Steel is very happy and willing to support.

Our steel goes into the world’s most sustainable buildings and transport infrastructure

Our innovative products are also crucial for a lower CO₂, more resource efficient world, ranging from lighter vehicles to making regular buildings their own 'power stations' - we will continue to investment in such product innovation.  We have also demonstrated strong sustainability credentials through our responsible sourcing programme which has achieved BES 6001 certification across nine of our European sites.  We plan to certify a further eight sites to BES 6001 by 2017.

As well as looking to the future, we provide unrivalled support to our customers on all issues relating to sustainable construction in steel through a network of in-house technical experts in conjunction with organisations such as The UK Green Building Council, The BCSA, and The Steel Construction Institute (SCI), as well as working together with academic experts such as Oxford Brookes University and our supply chains.

Further information can be found here on how we care for our environments, our people and our communities.