Sustainability Strategy

We embrace our responsibility for the environment, safety and our community. This commitment must be reflected in all our actions and decisions. As a distributor and important link in the value chain, we see it as our duty to continuously improve processes in order to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impacts of our business activities. A key driver in communicating our sustainable transformation both internally and externally is our purpose statement: “We partner with customers and suppliers to deliver innovative metal solutions for a sustainable tomorrow.” This guides us in our day-to-day work. It provides direction for our employees and showcases to our customers and business partners what they can count on. In condensed form, it is expressed in our slogan, “Your partner for a sustainable tomorrow.”

Sustainability is at the heart of our “Klöckner & Co 2025: Leveraging Strengths” strategy. We approach our dedicated sustainability strategy from an overarching environmental, social and governance (ESG) perspective and integrate it into our strategic planning.

We believe that in particular innovation, technology and new business models will enable the steel industry’s successful transformation to sustainability. As part of our Group strategy, we are consequently working as a pioneer of a sustainable steel industry to establish innovative business models by creating a comprehensive portfolio of sustainable customer solutions. Through expanding our product and service portfolio, we are seizing the strategic opportunity to integrate the attractive new business area of sustainable solutions into our business model. We see this transformation as a unique growth opportunity – not just in the future, but already today. 

Under our Nexigen^® umbrella brand, we have focused our sustainable product and service portfolio across the Group, providing transparent, carbon-reduced solutions in the categories of materials, processing, logistics, circularity (closed-loop) solutions and comprehensive Sustainability Advisory Services for sustainable customer solutions. In this way, we are already helping customers to reliably source carbon-reduced steel and metal products, while our smart software solutions give them full visibility into the carbon footprint of the products they buy. To provide our customers with optimum support in establishing sustainable value chains, we have introduced rating scales for our carbon-reduced steel, stainless steel and aluminum products. These scales are rooted in international, science-based standards and categorize the carbon-reduced materials according to their certified emissions along the entire value chain from resource extraction to production and processing (cradle to Klöckner exit gate). They serve as a guide and a comparison tool for customers when determining the carbon footprint of end products. Through numerous partnerships, we already offer our customers carbon-reduced steel and metal products today. 

In addition, as of the beginning of 2023, we now provide customers with an individual product carbon footprint (PCF) for almost every item in our product portfolio. This allows customers to reliably, transparently and easily see the carbon footprint of a product purchased from Klöckner & Co. With the Nexigen® PCF Algorithm, we have developed an innovative tool whose automated PCF calculation methodology is certified by TÜV SÜD. The Nexigen® PCF Algorithm’s methodology for calculating the PCF follows the internationally recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14067, ref. 14040 and 14044, and, in accordance with those standards, calculates the product’s cradle-to-customer entry gate emissions. As a result, our customers receive information on the extent to which Klöckner materials can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of their business activities and their own end products, and can reliably include the cumulative carbon emissions of their products in emissions calculations across the entire value chain, from resource extraction to production and delivery at the customer’s factory (hence “cradle to customer entry gate”). 

In addition to the strategic opportunities we see in the sustainable transformation of the steel industry, we are meeting our responsibility to reduce our own emissions and those of our upstream and downstream supply chains. Our net zero carbon targets have been recognized as science-based through the regular process of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Klöckner & Co has thus committed to reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions to net zero by 2040 and emissions in the entire value chain by 2050. Our path to net zero is based on the following science-based medium- and long-term carbon reduction targets:

For us, the dimensions of sustainability also include social responsibility and reliable governance in addition to environmental factors. This is because, for Klöckner & Co, responsible conduct based on ethical convictions paves the way for long-term business success and hence also for sustainability. We shape the social dimension in partnership with our employees, suppliers and customers, as well as with the involvement of the surrounding communities. Occupational safety is a priority in our Company. In particular, we are committed to protecting the health of our employees. To that end, we have created the Safety 1st and Kloeckner Cares initiatives. As part of our social commitment, we provide targeted support for educational programs in the community.

We pledge ourselves to reliable governance, for example by creating transparency and demonstrating commitment. Our responsible business management and control geared toward sustained value creation aim to build trust with business partners, employees, investors at home and abroad as well as the general public.