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voestalpine Stahl Named Klima:Aktiv Partner
09/30/2010 - voestalpine Stahl GmbH’s was made a klima:aktiv partner by Environmental Minister DI Niki Berlakovich in recognition of its contribution to CO2 emissions reduction: The company reduced CO2 emissions in a cutting unit area by 500 tonnes a year by optimizing its internal logistics.
voestalpine Stahl GmbH’s was made a klima:aktiv partner by Environmental Minister DI Niki Berlakovich in recognition of its contribution to CO2 emissions reduction. The award places the company among the more than 1000 klima:aktiv partners in business and administration.
voestalpine Stahl notes that it has reduced CO2 emissions in a cutting unit area by 500 tonnes a year by optimizing its internal logistics. The project, which has been granted an award by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, has reduced the company’s consumption of diesel by around 190,000 L due to shorter transport routes.
“The project, which was initiated by our employees, shows how consistently voestalpine is making an ongoing contribution to the environment and is reducing CO2 emissions. The steel production process itself has reached such a high level of technical development that it is currently difficult to achieve large reductions of CO2 for purely physical reasons. It is therefore all the more important to identify and make use of climate protection opportunities in other production steps, such as logistics," said Dr. Wolfgang Eder, Chairman of the Management Board at voestalpine AG.
Eder noted that since 1975, the European steel industry has reduced its emissions per tonne of produced steel by more than 50%, and has also more than halved the energy used during production. “We must focus on both climate protection and competitiveness, as only sustained positive development can secure innovation, quality and service,” he said. “This will in turn be of benefit for climate protection due to the developments in the steel industry for automobile and railway construction, in addition to wind power technology."
Berlakovich emphasized the importance of transportation in the reduction of CO2 emissions: “The transportation sector is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions. The Federal Ministry’s klima:aktiv mobil climate protection initiative is helping to make transportation more environmentally friendly. We need to work together to achieve the climate targets which Austria has set itself.”
voestalpine is a global group with a number of specialized and flexible companies that produce, process, and further develop high-quality steel products. The Group is represented by 360 production and sales companies in more than 60 countries. With its highest quality flat steel products, voestalpine is one of Europe's leading partners to the automotive, white goods and energy industries. The company is also a global leader in turnout technology, tool steel and special sections, as well as number one in Europe in the production of rails. The voestalpine Group generated revenues of EUR 11.6 billion in business year 2008/09 and employs around 40,000 staff worldwide.
