Rome, 15 May 2014 – The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) presented its annual Sustainability Awards during the organisation’s 18th conference (ISSF-18) held in Rome. TheISSF has split the Sustainability Award into two categories from this year, to recognise sustainability initiatives in two categories – People and Profit/Planet.
Fifteen member companies submitted a total of 27 case studies for consideration. The overall standard of the submissions has been improving year-by-year and this year the judging process was made extremely difficult by the strength of the competing entries.
In the People category, Outokumpu was recognised for its landmark study of the incidence of cancer in Stainless Steel industry employees in comparison with the figures shown by the general public. Carried out in cooperation with the Finnish Cancer Registry (part of the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare), the study examined cancer rates amongst people employed at the Kemi Chromite Mine and the Tornio Ferrochrome and Stainless Steel Mills during the 34 years from 1967 to 2004.
The study found that the overall incidence of cancer among employees was similar to that which was found in the general population in the same region, while the risk of lung cancer risk was actually lower among Stainless Steel Industry employees.
The winner of the Planet/Profit category was Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation (NSSC). Over the past 15 years the company has followed a detailed action and investment plan to recover and recycle refractory waste from its operations.
When the project began, NSSC only recycled 6% of its refractory waste. As a result of the improvements and investments which the company has made, that recycling rate is now 100% which has dramatically reduced landfill space required and provided NSSC with a valuable source of steelmaking raw materials.
A brochure containing details of all 27 case studies can be downloaded free of charge from the Publications Section of the worldstainless.org website.