Global Steel Climate Council

A new steel standard

Global Steel Climate Council

Steel is one of the most significant commodities on earth, facilitating core industries from construction to manufacturing. It’s also a major carbon polluter. Led by Nucor, an early innovator in sustainable steel, a group of major global steel manufacturers asked Powell Tate to launch a new coalition to define and implement a new industry standard for low-carbon steel.

The challenge

The challenge was to create a standard aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement. Our solution was to establish the Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC) to coordinate this effort and develop a new global standard to measure and report low-carbon steel manufacturing.

The solution

We launched the GSCC in November 2022 with six founding members to begin an outreach to the world’s largest producers, recyclers, and issue experts in the steel industry. We coordinated with leadership at each company as well as the GSCC board to create the coalition’s brand and website. We conducted outreach to legislators, advocacy groups, and other key industry stakeholders.

We worked with GSCC to release its initial Standard for public comment in the spring of 2023 and published its final draft and a technical guidance document later in the year.

We are currently developing a certification mark for steel producers and products to enable customers to know if they are purchasing low-carbon steel.

The impact

We helped expand the GSCC from its original six members to more than 40 steel manufacturers and trade groups around the world. Through more than 50 media outreach and direct engagements with industry and environmental stakeholders, the Standard has been introduced in more than a dozen global markets and socialized with leaders at industry forums, with the U.S. Departments of Energy, Commerce, and State, as well as the European Union Commission and the World Trade Organization (WTO).