Committed to protecting the environment
Our aim is to minimize the environmental burden of our operations as much as is economically and technically feasible. During the last decades, we have made significant investments to minimize our environmental impacts.
Outokumpu's key environmental objectives are to prevent environmental incidents, to reduce emissions into water and air, to improve energy efficiency and to optimize the use of water. The enhanced use of recycled steel as raw material and the reduction of process waste are also important.
Mitigating the impact of our production
In stainless steel production, the largest environmental impacts include dust emissions into the air, water discharges from production, use of direct and indirect energy, and waste created in the production process. Steel melting and rolling processes generate dust and scales that are collected, treated, and when possible, recycled in our own production.
We use efficient dust filtering systems that remove 99% of the particles. All precautions have been taken into consideration and the input material is pre-checked for excluding any unwanted content, such as mercury and radioactive contaminated material, which do not belong in the stainless steel production.
Water is used in our production process in annealing, pickling and cooling phases. Water is treated and recycled whenever possible, and only some purified water is discharged to the municipal wastewater system. Before discharging, all wastewater is treated either in the company’s own treatment plants or in municipal water treatment systems.
Outokumpu has constantly improved its energy efficiency in all production sites by optimizing internal supply chains and increasing capacity usage globally. All sites are certified according to quality ISO 9001 and environment ISO 14001 management systems. Proper implementation of these systems is monitored by internal and external audits.
Promoting biodiversity
At Outokumpu, we recognize the importance of biodiversity in maintaining healthy ecosystems and resilient societies. As a global stainless steel producer, we are committed to understanding and managing our impacts on nature across our operations and supply chain.
Our activities interact with biodiversity through greenhouse gas emissions, water use and pollution, and land use change. These pressures are most pronounced at high-production sites such as Tornio and Calvert. In our supply chain, raw materials like nickel and manganese are sourced from regions with rich biodiversity, which presents both environmental and reputational risks.
We have biodiversity action plans in place at all manufacturing sites and continue to develop our approach based on site-specific risks and pressures. Our corporate sustainability targets—such as reducing emissions, increasing recycled material use, and improving slag utilization—support biodiversity by minimizing resource extraction and pollution.
Outokumpu is actively monitoring developments in nature-related frameworks, including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN). While we have not committed to setting science-based targets for nature at this stage, we are exploring how these approaches could support our long-term sustainability goals.
Through collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement, we aim to contribute to the protection and restoration of biodiversity while advancing responsible business practices.