Welcome to our third Sustainability Report. I thank you very much for your interest in Vesuvius’ journey.
The fight against climate change continues to require higher-technology steel and larger, more complex castings. Wind and solar energy production capacity are both considerably more steel-intensive than fossil fuel power stations, and these are both set to grow considerably. Allied to this, the steel-making process is itself decarbonising thanks to efforts to improve the performance of existing assets, and the shift from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces.
Vesuvius supplies consumable refractory products and engineering solutions that are critical to the performance of metal casting processes. Every day, we help our customers improve the safety, energy efficiency, yield and reliability of their processes, and every day, we work in close partnership with the most advanced steelmakers to develop the refractory products for the green steelmaking and casting processes of the future.
Vesuvius’ Sustainability strategy, formally launched at the end of 2020, brings together all our environmental, social and governance initiatives into one coordinated programme. The strategy is built on four pillars: our planet, our customers, our people and our communities.
We have set out four key sustainability strategic priorities. Targets for three of these are embedded into our management incentive arrangements.
- Becoming a zero-accident company
- Reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2e emissions to reach net zero by 2050 at the latest
- Helping our customers reduce their own CO2 emissions
- Increasing gender diversity in the Senior Leadership Group and at every level of the Company
We are signatories to the UN Global Compact and report annually on our sustainability activities, commitments and progress.
We are very proud of our progress to date, as exemplified by the external recognition of the rating agencies. Since 2020, our MSCI ESG rating has progressed from BBB to AA, and our EcoVadis rating from Silver to Gold. In 2022, we submitted our first CDP questionnaire, which received a B grade.
We are committed to transparent and thorough reporting on our sustainability performance. We would welcome any input or feedback to: [email protected].
Alexander Laugier-Werth
Vice President, Sustainability, HSE & Quality