Sustainable steel for sustainable world

More than a century ago, in 1907, the first iron and steel plant, Tata Iron and Steel Company was set up at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand (then Bihar) with a production capacity of one lakh tonnes

- Tushar K Mahanti

It's part of the history now. Tata Steel has grown manifolds over the years and is now among the top steel producing companies in the world with an annual crude steel capacity of 34 million tonnes.

Iron and steel have been at the centre of human development for centuries. Steel is the world's most important and costeffective engineering and construction material. However, despite serving humankind in innumerable ways, steel has its share of predicaments. The industry is a high-energy and natural resource-intensive sector, such as coal, iron ore and water. Steel manufacturing is one of the largest contributors to global CO2 emissions, estimated at around 7-8%.

With growing global concerns over climate change, regulators, investors, and industrial customers are increasingly pushing steelmakers to increase their sustainability by pursuing decarbonization pathways. To speed up the process the sector would require incremental and breakthrough technologies.

The three facets of sustainability as represented by environment, economy, and society in the steel industry are directly connected to the efficient and effective management of energy and resources, such as raw materials, by-products and water.

In keeping with the Indian government's COP26 commitments, the ministry of steel has invited the stakeholders to prepare an action plan targeting the reduction of emissions in the steel industry. On an annual basis, the global iron and steel industry accounts for around 8% of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The industry accounts for 12% of total national CO2 emissions in India.

The Steel Association of India (SAI) recently compiled a list of policy enablers that might help advance green steel in the country. It includes preferential public buying of green steel, creating green steel standards, and other initiatives.