thyssenkrupp Materials Services calculates CO2e footprint for the entire supply chain

Knowing exactly how big a product's CO₂e footprint is along the entire supply chain is one of the major challenges companies face when it comes to reducing emissions. As the largest mill-independent materials distributor and service provider in the Western world, thyssenkrupp Materials Services has now developed a calculation model that is unique on the market to date aimed at creating precisely this transparency for its entire product portfolio and its customers: The Product Carbon Footprint – PCF for short – calculator calculates the exact CO₂e emissions for each product from production to delivery. "The Product Carbon Footprint Calculator is an important milestone on the way to achieving our own climate targets, but also those of our customers,” says Martin Stillger, CEO of thyssenkrupp Materials Services.

Product Carbon Footprint - individual calculation according to recognized standards

The complex calculation of the Product Carbon Footprint incorporates specific data on warehouse locations, delivery and shipment, as well as all supplier and material data. This means that all data along the entire supply chain up to the customer, the so-called "cradle to gate" approach, is taken into account. In accordance with the requirements of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol - the globally recognized standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions - this data is allocated to the individual order items at thyssenkrupp Materials Services. This allocation is based on the one hand on the extensive process and material knowledge of thyssenkrupp Materials Services and on the other on the support of external experts in assessing the corresponding greenhouse gas effects. In this way it is possible for each item to transparently show all steps from production, delivery, storage and processing to delivery to the customer in terms of greenhouse gas impact.

Frank Thelen, Head of Governance and Procurement at thyssenkrupp Materials Services and largely involved in the development of the model: “With the data from the calculations, our customers have exact baseline data for their own PCF calculations. On this basis, we can advise our customers so that, for example, products from other manufacturing processes with lower CO₂e values can be used in the future. In this way we make an important contribution to the climate neutrality of our customers' products." thyssenkrupp Materials Services' calculation model has been certified by the international classification society DNV.

Green Steel - less CO₂e through renewable energies and intelligent recycling

One of the steel grades in the thyssenkrupp Materials Services product portfolio that customers can use to reduce their Scope 3 emissions will be "green steel" from the Swiss Steel Group from 2023 - the green forged and rolled bright and bar steel is used by thyssenkrupp Aerospace, among others, to build aircraft parts. The manufacturing process for this material is particularly environmentally friendly, with emissions 80 to 95 percent below the industry average.

 "Even if it is not yet possible to produce steel in a climate-neutral way, a reduction of 10 or 20 percent is already an important step, particularly for this very CO₂e-intensive material," says Frank Thelen. "With the new transparency across our entire supply chain, we can now work with our partners to make it as climate-friendly as possible in the future."