Chain of custody approaches in the steel industry
The role of GHG reduction certificates
The steel industry has a long history of producing life cycle assessments (LCA) and carbon footprints (CFP) of its products.
Up until recently, the reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the industry were passed on to customers by including changes in an updated CFP. In recent years, the demand for low-carbon products has been increasing and steel companies are looking for ways to supply low-carbon steel products to the market.
In this context, the use of chain of custody approaches to assign GHG emission reductions to specific products can be a useful tool and its use has been increasing in the steel industry.
Today there is no standardised methodology for GHG chain of custody approaches and companies have developed their own schemes to meet their own needs. As these schemes multiply, the need for industry guidance has become increasingly clear.
Therefore, worldsteel, together with its members, has developed a set of Principles and Guidelines to provide transparency and clarity on the application of chain of custody approaches within the steel industry, to provide guidance to the companies who choose to use these approaches and also to provide input to other organisations developing such approaches. These other approaches include the new ISO 14077 standard and UNIDO’s Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative among others.