Considering to join Inner Circle? Here is everything you need to know.

The Inner Circle initiative makes the sustainability benefit transparent and smoothens the path from stainless steel to usable scrap, and from scrap to ever more sustainable stainless steel production – effectively optimizing access to circularity for everyone.

The purpose is to make the scrap supply chain ever more sustainable by connecting customers to sustainable suppliers together with Outokumpu as the stainless steel producer.

Outokumpu has the lowest carbon footprint in the industry, thanks to the highest recycled material content rate in our industry, 94%. The more we use scrap, the lower our emissions are. We would like to enable our customers and partners to actively participate. Further, we have recognized the need for customers to have easy access to responsible scrap suppliers. The Inner Circle will help customers locate and identify sustainable partners to work with.

Joining creates a positive impact for both the business and the environment. Together we show strong initiative and leadership by spearheading the move towards a more circular and a closed-loop economy. Our partners can join this unique initiative which is the first in the industry and demonstrate their leadership in the circular economy to their customers and stakeholders. Inner Circle scrap suppliers assure the careful and responsible management of the material whilst keeping the highest environmental and social standards.

No. Scrap suppliers and customers that join Outokumpu’s Inner Circle may freely choose their other business partners. The Inner Circle initiative does not contain any exclusivity requirements on scrap suppliers or customers.

Inner Circle is besides Outokumpu Circle Green® our latest initiative investigating new sustainable business models and pushing sustainability into the new edge. Commercially the two initiatives are not connected.

Our role is to steer the initiative, showcase the circularity of stainless steel production and connect customers to sustainable scrap suppliers. We will also verify, through open and objective criteria, the involved scrap suppliers to ensure a sustainable supply chain. We will also provide marketing materials for our partners.

The scrap supplier’s role is to ensure a sustainable supply chain by maintaining the sorting and following Outokumpu’s specifications and distributing the scrap sustainably. The scrap suppliers make a trust-based commitment to sell an equivalent volume of scrap collected from Inner Circle members to European mills.

The scrap market is a global business where we see the need to verify scrap suppliers to join the initiative. ISO 9001 certification and the EcoVadis rating are the two main examples.

We are now entering the pilot phase of this initiative with first partners joining. At this stage, our focus is on creating the practices and learnings about the closed-loop process. Our aim is to create a circular loop where sustainable scrap is recycled from customers to scrap suppliers to stainless steel producers. This initiative is first of its kind for the industry.

Outokumpu’s Inner Circle is an open initiative where we would like to welcome all scrap suppliers and stainless steel customers from Europe to participate. Basic requirements need to be fulfilled, based on which we would like to establish an open initiative for sustainable recycling of steel scrap. Outokumpu expects all participants to ensure strict compliance with applicable laws, including competition laws.

Customers who join the program will bring the scrap back into the cycle by the end of the product’s life cycle or after processing the material. The customers are committed to working with an Inner Circle scrap supplier.