Project nominated for the Excellence in Life Cycle Assessment Steelie Award 2022
Nippon Steel has developed and published Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for most of their products.
Environmental Product Declarations, operated as ‘EcoLeaf’ declaration in Japan, is a proof of the information of the life cycle environmental impact of a product and provides the LCI data of their product to their customers.
The first EPDs of Nippon Steel that were published in 2019 were developed for construction products, followed by tin-plate, OCTGs, wire and bars, plate, and steel sheets in 2022.
Now they have developed and published 35 EPDs for their products, covering about 85% of their range.
The recycling potential of these products were also published in the EPDs following the ISO 20915 standard.
Using the EPDs can help customers to calculate their environmental impacts with the primary data of their steel products rather than using secondary data provided by LCI databases.
In Japan, the ‘EcoLeaf’ label and QR code are printed on some of the packaging materials (for example Starbucks coffee can, and Bolts & Nuts chocolate) which use Nippon Steel’s tin-free steel products.
This provides the EPD information for the customers who have used their tin-free steel in their products and is a great way to demonstrate the environmental performance of the products.