With climate optimism underpinning the important shifts taking place on the political stage in Australia, there is a growing sense of enthusiasm around stronger and more collaborative nation-wide climate action. This excitement echoes the collective attitude amongst architects, designers, specifiers, and manufacturers who – particularly in recent years – have gone through an accelerated sustainability journey, putting environmental concerns and a sense of accountability at the heart of the building industry’s agenda.

BlueScope, Australia’s largest steel manufacturer, shares these aspirations and ambitions on climate action. The company’s commitment to reducing the emissions intensity of its operations and products is underscored by the goal of net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its operations by 2050.1

“This goal is underpinned by two GHG emissions intensity reduction targets by 2030 – across our steelmaking and midstream operations, including painting and coating,” explains Philippa Stone, Sustainability Manager at BlueScope.

Of course, endeavours of this scale don’t happen in a vacuum, and achieving those goals will be dependent on a range of enablers. For BlueScope these include breakthrough technologies, the availability of affordable and reliable renewable energy and hydrogen, the availability of raw materials and - naturally - supportive policies.

Together towards net zero steelmaking

Another crucial facilitator underpinning BlueScope’s efforts – one the organisation considers essential to advancing both its own, and the industry’s, climate initiatives – is collaboration. “We know we can’t achieve net zero on our own,” says Philippa. “And we’re committed to exploring collaboration opportunities across our value chain, including with our supply chain, customers and broader stakeholders.”

This drive to explore collaboration opportunities through existing relationships and new partnerships with institutions and companies that share the same goals – including conducting trials of breakthrough technologies – is one of the key steps in BlueScope’s decarbonisation journey.

BlueScope is working with a range of organisations across the steel value chain and beyond on projects to explore options for low emissions iron and steelmaking at the Port Kembla Steelworks. “While breakthrough technologies are in the process of commercialisation, our focus is on improving emissions intensity with our existing infrastructure,” Philippa explains.

BlueScope is working with Rio Tinto to research and design low-emissions processes and technologies for the steel value chain across iron ore processing, iron and steelmaking, as well as related technologies. One area of exploration is Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ores being used with green hydrogen – produced from renewable electricity – to produce a low emissions iron through a direct reduction process.

“It is envisaged that the direct reduced iron (DRI) from this process would then be melted in an electrical furnace, also powered with renewable electricity, to produce iron suitable for the steelmaking process,” describes Philippa. This endeavour is a part of BlueScope’s climate action fund, which will see up to $150 million allocated towards sustainable initiatives over the next five years.

BlueScope is also working with a range of industry and research organisations on exploring and developing a pilot hydrogen electrolyser plant at BlueScope’s Port Kembla Steelworks, and – as Philippa explains – the teams are very eager to see what the pilot plant can teach them about the production, storage and handling of hydrogen. “And, very importantly, about how hydrogen will behave in a blast furnace,” she adds.

“Most forecasters believe hydrogen-based ironmaking processes will play an important role in the decarbonisation of primary steelmaking, along with an increasing proportion of secondary steelmaking, using recycled steel scrap,” explains Philippa. Incorporating the hydrogen electrolyser, the longer-term goal is to develop a hydrogen hub in the region.

BlueScope also engages with a range of non-profit organisations which aim to accelerate the transformation of the built environment, such as the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and the Materials and Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance (MECLA). “These memberships give us a great platform to engage with our customers on sustainability and climate action issues, understand their objectives and explore opportunities for collaboration on climate change initiatives,” says Philippa.

The business is actively engaged in educating the wider industry on some of the challenges and opportunities for decarbonisation of the steel industry. It is also involved with a few of Australia’s most innovative academic bodies, such as Australian Building 4.0 CRC (Cooperative Research Centre), which is a joint effort between government, industry and several universities designed to uncover new approaches to improving building performance, sustainability, and supply chain efficiency.

BlueScope has also teamed up with the University of Wollongong (UoW) to create the ARC Research Hub for Australian Steel Innovation (Steel Research Hub II), which is a 5-year research hub for building systems optimised for unique Australian climates. But Steel Research Hub II is not the only initiative that sees BlueScope and UoW join forces. They will also partner to investigate the potential of replacing coal with biochar – charcoal produced from forestry industry waste or construction industry waste – in the steel production process.

Philippa adds that these projects will help take BlueScope to the cutting edge of current technologies to push the steelmaker to the next phase – and bridge the technology gap for the decarbonisation of the sector.

Supporting customers with their own sustainability ambitions

These initiatives also support BlueScope’s customers in achieving their individual climate goals. “We know the sustainability profiles of our products can contribute to sustainability outcomes on projects – and we are committed to supporting our customers in achieving their targets,” Philippa says.

As part of its climate action efforts, BlueScope already provides its customers with products that can help minimise the embodied carbon for a project, such as high strength steels which can enable dematerialisation by reducing the volume of steel required, and therefore the amount of embodied carbon for the project. Other products, such as framing made from TRUECORE® steel are lightweight, durable and screw assembled, making it highly suitable to modular design, adaptive reuse, disassembly, and reuse, as well as recycling at end of life.

The commitment to enable designers and specifiers to pursue their environmental ambitions is also expressed through BlueScope’s strong stance on transparency - and its leadership in the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) space. In fact, BlueScope was an early adopter of the EPD - and the first manufacturer in Australia to publish one in 2015 under the EPD Australasia program. “Industry professionals want to have a clear understanding of the environmental impact of the products they specify,” Philippa explains. “EPDs provide third-party verified information on the impact of a product over its full lifecycle, and this data can be entered into a life cycle assessment model for a building. That, in turn, can help design teams make informed decisions about products that can help achieve their sustainability objectives.”

BlueScope has also been a long-standing advocate for embedding stewardship and transparency across the steel value chain. The ResponsibleSteel™ Standard, launched in 2019, defines the performance expectations that support the responsible sourcing and production of steel.  BlueScope was pleased to announce in February 2022 that the Port Kembla site had achieved ResponsibleSteelTM certification, being the first steelmaker in Asia Pacific and the fourth site to be certified globally.

Steel as an enabler of the renewable energy transition

Yet another facet of BlueScope’s climate action efforts is the production of components designed to underpin the shift to renewable energy. With a typical wind tower boasting up to 300 tonnes of steel plate and steel components being a key requirement for solar farms, there is no doubt that renewable energy projects and supporting electricity transmission infrastructure are dependent on steel.

As a steel manufacturer, BlueScope will play a pivotal role in advancing this crucial transition. In November 2020, BlueScope announced a plan to invest $20 million in a new BlueScope Renewable Energy Manufacturing Zone (BRMZ) at Port Kembla, to form part of an Advanced Manufacturing Precinct at Port Kembla Steelworks, further improving Australia’s local manufacturing capabilities.

As the nation moves towards more meaningful climate action, BlueScope’s sustainability initiatives provide a strong example of how a key industrial sector is adapting. The organisation’s commitment to decarbonise its operations, help industry professionals realise their climate goals, and support the renewable energy transition proves that achieving ambitious sustainability outcomes can be approached in a comprehensive and multi-faceted manner - and that climate action can, and must, be a collaborative effort.

1Our net zero goal covers BlueScope's Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions.