GMH Gruppe welcomes the introduction of the Low Emission Steel Standard (LESS) as a first step towards green lead markets

Industry, science and politics have agreed on a procedure for classifying climate-friendly ("green") steel. The aim is to ensure that different steel manufacturers are making efforts towards decarbonisation and production routes which are comparable. The LESS standard is designed to be flexible and geared towards cross-industry and international cooperation. It therefore provides the basis for cross-industry measurement and pricing of climate-friendly production within the framework of green lead markets for the basic materials industry.

In future, the LESS label will enable manufacturers to prove whether their steel can be categorised as green, what its product carbon footprint (PCF) is and how much scrap it was produced with. The PCF is a quantitative indicator that shows how much greenhouse gas was emitted into the atmosphere during steel production and the upstream production processes, such as electricity generation or the production of alloying agents.

Georgsmarienhütte GmbH has been reporting its PCF since 2023 at the request of customers and as part of its own transformation strategy. It has already reduced CO₂ emissions with scrap-based steel production in electric arc furnaces by 80% compared to the production of crude steel using the traditional blast furnace route (regarding scope 1&2). The methodology used by Georgsmarienhütte to calculate the product carbon footprint has been validated by TÜV SÜD and is used for more than a thousand steel variants. The company aims to be completely climate-neutral by 2039. In this context, GMH Gruppe emphatically supports the new LESS initiative, which is being presented today at the Hannover Messe by the German Steel Federation and supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

Dr Anne-Marie Großmann, member of the Management Board and shareholder of GMH Gruppe, explains: "We welcome LESS which will standardise the various certifications for climate-friendly steel. The LESS label gives our customers the certainty that they actually purchase steel produced with low CO₂ emissions and can therefore declare their own product to be lower in CO₂ emissions. Standardisation is an important step towards greater transparency in demonstrating the progress the steel industry has made on the path to transformation.

LESS is also an essential building block for the introduction of green lead markets in the raw materials industry in Europe. The comparability of differently manufactured materials and products through standardised and independent climate ratings such as LESS creates the conditions for a fair assessment and pricing in line with climate targets. The next step will depend on whether and how quickly the public sector also aligns its procurement with LESS.  I am convinced that the corresponding positioning of state-owned companies will significantly accelerate the acceptance of the Low Emission Steel Standard."

LESS evaluates both the transformation process in steel production on the conventional blast furnace route in the transition to low CO₂ emissions hydrogen-based production processes and electric steel production based on scrap, which has already low CO₂ emissions.

Georgsmarienhütte GmbH, the largest steel producer in GMH Gruppe, intends to be one of the first companies in Germany to take part in the LESS pre-validation test run in the second half of 2024.