Outstanding commitment to sustainability: BENTELER Steel/Tube awarded EcoVadis gold medal

Salzburg/Paderborn, February 20, 2024. EcoVadis, the world's largest provider of sustainability ratings, has awarded BENTELER Steel/Tube its gold medal. The recent rating underscores the company's commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The award puts BENTELER Steel/Tube among the top five percent of companies evaluated by EcoVadis in the ‘Production of Pig Iron and Steel’ category.

“As a global company in an energy-intensive industry, we are aware of our responsibility to the environment and future generations,” commented Dr. Tobias Braun, CFO of the BENTELER Group and Managing Director and CFO of the Steel/Tube Division. “Sustainability is an important part of our corporate strategy: We consistently reduce CO2 emissions and focus on circular economy. Steel production in our electric steel mill in Lingen produces around 75% less CO2 than steel production via the conventional blast furnace route – an important trump card in the implementation of our sustainability strategy. By 2045, we aim to become CO2 neutral in the Steel/Tube Division. That goes for the supply chain as well as production and our products. In the latter area, especially, we have established new benchmarks for more sustainable steels and steel tube products with the introduction of our new CliMore® product range.”

Gold medal from EcoVadis provides orientation and security for customers

“With silver in 2022 and now the gold medal, it’s proof that we are on the right track and that our commitment is paying off. The award is not only a success for our company, it also gives our customers orientation and security on their journey towards climate neutrality,” says Thomas Begemann, Director Strategy, Communication & Innovation at BENTELER Steel/Tube. “Our goal is to consistently further reduce CO2 emissions. However, for this and for the green transformation of the steel industry in general, political support is also needed, especially for the development of the necessary infrastructure.”

The EcoVadis assessment is based on a defined assessment catalogue that allows a comparable overview of the certified companies. The assessment focuses on 21 CSR criteria, divided into four areas: environment; labor and human rights; ethics; and sustainable procurement. These criteria are based on international CSR standards such as the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the CERES principles, the ISO 26000 standard and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, also known as the ‘Ruggie Framework’.

Strategic commitment to more sustainable steels and steel tube products

BENTELER Steel/Tube initiated its ‘Green tubes’ strategy in 2020. The aim is to reduce the CO2 footprint in tube production – for example, through electricity from renewable energies, electrification of production facilities and CO2-neutral raw material for welded tubes. In BENTELER's own steel mill in Lingen, an electric arc furnace is used to produce new, high-quality steel from recycled scrap as well as billets for steel tube production. Compared to steel production using the conventional blast furnace route, this produces 75% less CO2 emissions.

In September last year, CliMore®, a comprehensive product range of sustainably produced steels and steel tubes, was launched. With it, BENTELER Steel/Tube is supporting its customers from various areas of industry in decarbonizing their supply chains and offers full transparency with regard to upstream emissions.