Cliffs, SSAB Lauded by White House for Clean Manufacturing

Cleveland-Cliffs is the first domestic steel producer to participate in the Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge. It is also a participant in the DOE’s Better Plants program aimed at reducing waste and carbon emissions as well as at decreasing energy and water usage, the White House said.

The Better Climate Challenge was officially launched in February. It allows companies to partner with the Energy Department for technical assistance and for sharing best practices. The aim: reducing companies’ scope 1 and 2 emissions by a minimum of 50% within 10 years.

Cliffs’ Climate Challenge commitment involves 46 of its facilities. The goal is to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 20230.

Cliffs Chairman, President, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves met with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm earlier this month. The two discussed the company’s DOE partnerships as well as the role it is playing in decarbonizing the steel industry and the American economy in general.

The Administration has also received a private sector commitment from SSAB Americas to innovate and to scale up its production of low-carbon steel. The steel plate producer has committed to producing steel with zero emissions as early as 2023.

“Through the installation of an onsite, renewable fuel storage and supply system, SSAB is embracing emerging technologies that help put the steel industry on the path to be carbon-neutral by 2050,” the White House noted last week in a statement.

Last month, SSAB Americas president Chuck Schmitt and senior vice president of commercial sales Jeff Moskaluk sat down with Steel Market Update to discuss the company’s ongoing sustainability efforts.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com