You must have heard about climate change and about trying to slow down or even stop human influence on it. Concepts such as sustainability, decarbonization, green, eco friendly and many other terms have been introduced that evoke in us the effort to create a more favorable human environmental performance towards the planet and its resources. We are even hearing about specific percentages for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, 2030 and 2050. All these efforts to slow down climate change are preceded by the fundamental fact of knowing reality. Where are we today, what environmental impact does human life and related activities have on the planet? Based on this fact, we can then responsibly set realistic and technically possible goals. This is nothing new. At U. S. Steel Košice, we have known for a long time that we can only manage the process we know. And we know such a process that we have quantitatively expressed, especially through measurement. We carry out various environmental measurements of air and water quality, prepare energy balances, monitor equipment failure rates and carry out many other activities in order to describe the process in numbers as thoroughly as possible and to manage it as efficiently as possible. However, all this falls into our "know-how" and is all sensitive information that is not always good to share.

We are getting into the LCA/EPD initiative.

LCA (Life cycle assessment) is a product life cycle analysis that describes the overall impact of a product on the environment. From start to finish. This means extraction and processing of raw materials, transport, production of the product itself and recycling or landfilling. Most importantly, he describes it with quantitative indicators – numbers. It is not only about CO₂, but also about the impact on water and air pollution from other substances, e.g. carcinogens, etc. This analysis is carried out according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards and therefore objectively assesses the environmental impact of products through a wide range of manufacturers. The fact is that this analysis includes a large number of indicators. To simplify and increase clarity, the EPD (Environmental product declaration) standard  according to ISO 14025 was created. This document is verified by the 3rd party and published on the company's website so that it is freely available to customers who are also preparing LCA/EPD of their products.

At U. S. Steel Košice, we receive daily requests from our customers, not only for the CO₂ demands of our products, but also for the EPD itself. That's why we decided to follow our colleagues from Big River Steel, Mon Valley Works, Granite City Works and other competitors and started working on our first EPD for the Galvanized Sheet Metal product category. Under the auspices of Elena Petrášková, Vice-President for Energy and General Counsel and Miroslav Kiralvarga,  Vice-President for External Relations, Management and Business Development,  we managed to successfully launch this project. It is planned in several phases, as we do not have only one product category. Therefore, as a first step, we work closely with Sphera, who model our first LCA/EPD from our data and have it verified by a third party together with us. In the next steps, we plan to do the modeling ourselves in order to be as cost- and time-efficient as possible for other product categories. The aim is to satisfy the requirements of our customers as much as possible and to use our planet's resources responsibly. It is not an easy task, but I believe that with the help of all of us, we will be able to achieve this goal and improve the level of business at U. S. Steel Košice. I would like to thank all those who have already been or will still be approached in this regard for their help in advance.

I attach a link for EPD of our colleagues in the USA (requires entering contact information)Sustainability
 - Certifications - www.ussteel.com