Innovation and resource efficiency within the steel sector through an integrated ecosystems perspective

Purpose and goal

The project has led to increased knowledge and awareness of ecosystem services in the steel industry. Furthermore, through Outokumpu´s work, the project has shown how ecosystem services can be integrated in practise and into the steel companies´ environmental management system. New working practices have been explored and the project has shown that a company´s relation to the surrounding ecosystem and knowledge of ecosystem services can be closely linked to risks, relations to key stakeholders and operational improvements connected to resource efficiency.

Expected results and effects

Expected results were to that more steel companies would want to learn about ecosystem services and include an ecosystem perspective in their environmental and sustainability work. The response has been positive and probabilities to achieve this effect are high. Thus, spreading of the handbook developed in this project is an important step to further strengthen the work. Showing concrete examples of why ecosystem services are relevant to steel companies and examples that show how to work with an ecosystem perspective are essential.

Planned approach and implementation

The project has been carried out according to plan and with good results. It was decided at an early stage to focus on analysing how ecosystem services and the ESR tool can be used to improve environmental management systems according to ISO 14001 with regards to the method development. Results from the project show that the highest potential lies within ISO 14001 and the integration of ecosystem services. This means that if the work is done within the framework of ISO 14001, ecosystem services are integrated into the company´s core business instead of becoming a stand-alone side project.