Leading the charge to fossil-free innovation INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT

By Chuck Schmitt, President, SSAB Americas Reflections on the journey to a sustainable future

Though it may be a regulatory requirement, an ethical imperative and, increasingly, an investor, stakeholder and customer demand, reducing a company’s carbon dependency is rarely a simple matter. Like most things worth achieving, it takes time, effort, capital, an acknowledgement of risk and an acceptance of unpredictability.

This has certainly been true for SSAB. Our industry currently accounts for 7% of all global emissions, creates a product essential to modern living, and our European operations uses a process that dates back a millennium. When we decided to change that emission trajectory in 2016, we knew it would take more than incredible technological, manufacturing and engineering creativity and brainpower. It would also require grit and determination at the leadership level to keep people inspired, focused and committed to a journey no one had taken before, with a finish line far in the distance.

The practices and philosophies we embraced on our journey of successfully decarbonizing steel production may hold value for other leaders tasked with driving their teams, organizations and industries toward a greener future. Here are five of the most important ones.

¹Race to Zero campaign, climatechampions.unfccc.int ²“Greenwashing – the deceptive tactics behind environmental claims,” un.org