OAO Severstal has been ranked the most environmentally friendly Russian metals and mining company in a report by Interfax-ERA, an ecology and energy rating agency. In Interfax-ERA’s report, which rates the environmental and energy efficiency performance of 4,000 of Russia’s leading businesses across all industries over a six-year period between 2005 and 2012, ranked Severstal 36th overall, ahead of peers such as Evraz Group (117th), OAO MMK (130th), OAO UPMK (141st), and OAO Mechel (142nd).

The report praises Severstal’s leadership across a number of categories including: efforts reduce environmental impact; energy efficiency (measuring the quantity of production per each unit of energy and natural resources consumed); improvements in environmental performance since 2005; and the degree of transparency of the company’s environmental performance.

Alexander Grubman, CEO of Severstal Russian Steel, commented, "We are continually working to improve our performance in terms of energy efficiency and environmental friendliness, two of our major operational priorities, which has been recognized by this report.

"Through generating our own power to meet the needs of our major melting facilities, our energy saving programs also help to reduce our manufacturing costs. This gives us yet another competitive advantage. In 2011, 52.6% of the total electricity consumed by the Cherepovets Steel Mill was generated in-house. This will reach up to 55% when the No. 4 Generator is launched.

"In 2011, we invested approximately 723 million Rubles in environmental improvement, while this year we have invested approximately 1 billion Rubles to continue to improve environmental performance."