ResponsibleSteel is the world’s first global and independent standard for responsibly sourced and produced steel. It provides a tool to view our sustainability performance through an industry-level ESG framework. Combined with external auditing and stakeholder engagement, ResponsibleSteel enhances the credibility and transparency of our sustainability work
ResponsibleSteel has around 13% of the global steel industry in membership and over 40 certified sites on 5 continents covering the production of over 100 million tons of steel.,
Outokumpu's certification process
Outokumpu aims to certify its manufacturing sites in
Finland, Germany and Sweden by the end of 2023. All the audits have
been completed and we are now waiting for the certification decision for both
BL Stainless Europe and Advanced Materials.
The certification process covers all material sustainability aspects concerning our operations. These include impacts on climate and biodiversity, water stewardship, occupational health and safety, human rights, diversity and inclusion, stakeholder engagement, responsible sourcing and governance.
The standard consists of 13 Principles on environmental, social and governance topics. They are further divided into about 60 criteria and over 500 requirements that are externally audited.
The certification process was launched with internal awareness raising and site-specific self-assessments in the autumn of 2022. During spring 2023, the process continued with the ResponsibleSteel approval process towards the Stage 2 audits at each site. In February 2023, Outokumpu sites in Avesta, Sweden and Tornio, Finland were the first steel manufacturing sites in the Nordics to qualify to this stage. The remaining Stage 2 audits for the Swedish and German sites were completed during April and June 2023. The list of qualified sites with respective audit schedules is at ResponsibleSteel website: Planned and Ongoing Audits | ResponsibleSteelDedicated site-specific stakeholder outreach processes took place in parallel with the Stage 2 audits. The purpose of these processes was to listen to the views local stakeholders have on the Outokumpu sites, read more about this below.
Stakeholder engagement
External stakeholder outreach is a crucial part of the certification process. The stakeholder outreach process in each country took place in native language. These processes were conducted by our auditor, DNV, that is responsible for the external auditing of the ResponsibleSteel certification process for Outokumpu. To ensure confidentiality and impartiality, Outokumpu had no role in this process.
Outokumpu organized a stakeholder information webinar in December 2022 to share information on the standard and the included stakeholder engagement process. You can find the recording of the webinar below.
Engaging with our stakeholders and listening to possible concerns and other thoughts on us and our operations is important to us, so we thank everyone who contributed to this process by sharing your views. The anonymized stakeholder feedback given to us by our auditors will be used to develop our stakeholder engagement processes further.
Any questions about ResponsibleSteel? Please send your questions to Anna Vainikainen, Head of Human Rights at anna.vainikainen@outokumpu.com.