ResponsibleSteel in 2020
2020 marks a year of growth for ResponsibleSteel
At the end of 2020 ResponsibleSteel Members came together virtually to celebrate the immense growth and progress the organisation has made in the last year.
Despite an uncertain year our membership has grown by 30%. Since June we have welcomed 13 new members: Tata Steel, Cobalt Institute, Hyundai Steel, Bilecik demir çelik, Bio Regional, ERM, Grimshaw Global, Hatch UK, People Planet Profit UG, Russian Green Building Council, SRI Quality Systems, The Australian Supply Chain Sustainability School and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
Excitingly, membership continues to strengthen globally – with new members from Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Europe.
Since June, ResponsibleSteel’s small team has been committed to delivering our core business of Standards, Assurance and Oversight for our Certification Programme. In 2020 we held our first audits against the ResponsibleSteel Standard and we have approved four certification bodies. Alongside this we have approved 20 auditors and held training for a similar number.
During our Members Meeting, we were delighted to be joined by Mr T.V. Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel. In a keynote speech, Mr Narendran gave an excellent and passionate overview of how steel industry and Tata Steel are engaging in the sustainable steel debate.
Mr Narendran commented, “I think it’s increasingly important for this industry to keep engaging with stakeholders, not only in the value chain but also outside of the value chain.”
He went on to say, “We, as an industry, need to reach out to many stakeholders. Which is where a multi-stakeholder platform like ResponsibleSteel plays a role and I expect for this reason we will be able to have a more objective discussion. Tata Steel felt like ResponsibleSteel is a good platform for us to be part of as we are constantly looking to improve the way we work and to be more responsible.”
Watch Mr Narendran’s speech here
After his remarks Gerry Tidd, Responsible Steel’s co-chair for business unofficially awarded Mr Narendran quote of the day: “If complexity excites you, this is the industry to be in.”
An even bigger year on the horizon
In 2021, ResponsibleSteel will build on these great foundations as we scale up operations. In March we will welcome our first CEO Anne-Claire Howard to help us drive the organisation forward into our next stage of growth.
Alongside this we will scale up our proactive membership drive focusing on steelmakers, producers and civil society. We will be deliberate about raising our profile via external communications and stakeholder engagement.
New projects
Internally, our team are focused on the delivery of new projects to expand our offering. One of the most exciting projects on the horizon is SteelZero; launched in early December in partnership with The Climate Group, SteelZero is a global initiative to bring together leading organisations to speed up the transition to a net zero steel industry.
Companies who join SteelZero make a public commitment to transition to 100% Net Zero Steel by 2050 at the latest. Collectively members show a demand signal to steel makers and producers in the move towards producing responsible zero carbon steel.
Watch the SteelZero video here
Next year we will be working with the Climate Group to grow the membership of SteelZero and build working groups from multiple sectors to demonstrate the wide market demand. We would love as many RsponsibleSteel members to join us as possible.
The Secretariat team and the Board at ResponsibleSteel thank our members for their commitment, engagement and support during a challenging year. We are now gearing up for another exciting year of growth and collaboration and look forward to working with members new and old.
From everyone here at ResponsibleSteel, have a great holiday period and we look forward to seeing you all next year!
