Environment
Responsible practices and procedures ensure that all aspects of Tata Steel’s business is conducted with the utmost respect for the environment.
Corporate citizenship means taking all necessary steps to maintain a safe, healthy and fair workplace for all our employees and contractors, protecting the environment, respecting and engaging with local communities, and maintaining high ethical standards wherever we operate.
Environmental sustainability has become an increasingly important item on the Tata Steel agenda. The new basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) gas recovery project at Port Talbot in the UK will reduce the site’s CO2 emissions by some 240,000 tonnes per year and its dust (PM10s) emissions by 40 tonnes.
In Singapore, environmental sustainability initiatives implemented over the past few years have enabled NatSteel to reduce its CO2 emissions to below 0.5 tonnes per tonne of crude steel. Besides having one of the most energy efficient operations in Asia, NatSteel’s products are also made from at least 85% recycled material.
In Thailand, Tata Steel continues to make significant reductions in its electricity consumption, to eliminate dust and improve its wastewater treatment processes through its Total Productive Maintenance programme.
Tata Steel Thailand has also set a target of reducing its CO2 emissions to 1 tonne per tonne of liquid steel produced by 2012. Our other current environmental initiatives include ‘The Big Cleaning Day’, ‘The Local Forest Rehabilitation’, ‘The Steel Products For Environmental Preservation’ and ‘Save Our Earth’ projects. Initiatives include reducing plastic bag usage, giving global warming guidelines to employees, fish freeing and canal cleaning project, coral planting, building dams and saline soil to improve food resources for wildlife animals.
Tata Steel is committed to playing an active and constructive role in addressing climate change – both by reducing its own carbon footprint and by creating high-performance steels that will make it possible to produce lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles and energy-efficient buildings.
Having already halved the amount of energy needed to make a tonne of steel over the last 40 years, Tata Steel has set itself a target of reducing CO2 emissions by a further 20% within the next decade.