OREANDA-NEWS. EVRAZ continues to take part in CDP – the global voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project. This year, the company broadened the scope of disclosures on annual GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, including year-on-year data and providing an analysis of variations in several parameters. Based on the total disclosure score, EVRAZ ranked third among the companies that operate in Russia. In 2014, the company ranked fourth.

EVRAZ is reducing its environmental footprint in a planned manner, acting according to its environment protection strategy adopted in 2012. Some of the targets have already been delivered upon sooner than planned: refuse utilisation rate has exceeded 100%, while fresh water consumption has been reduced by more than the planned 15%. The company is committed to further reducing water consumption and takes steps towards reducing emissions of atmospheric pollutants, restoring soils and re-using secondary gases.

Upgrading the production facilities plays an important role in delivering the environmental objectives. The launch of pulverized coal injection systems at EVRAZ NTMK and EVRAZ ZSMK, the upgrade of the electric furnace at EVRAZ ZSMK helped to significantly reduce emissions of GHG. Calculations show that migrating to pulverized coal injection will help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 200,000 tonnes per year, while using electric furnace steel for production of rails at EVRAZ ZSMK will generate a reduction of 600,000 tonnes more.  For EVRAZ NTMK, one of the key projects currently is the installation of a coke dry quenching plant; it will enable an almost 20% reduction of carbon monoxide emissions by 2017.

The international Carbon Disclosure Project provides investors with environmental and social responsibility metrics of companies across the world. Currently, 10 companies operating in Russia take part, and only EVRAZ represents the steelmaking sector.

In 2015, GHG emissions became a new reported environmental metric for the Russian companies. In December 2015, the Russian Ministry for Natural Resources approved respective guidelines. EVRAZ took part in developing the guidelines within the framework of the non-commercial partnership Russian Steel. The document includes the methods the company used to determine its emissions in 2013-2014.