Klöckner & Co is one of the largest producer-independent distributors of steel and metal products, supplying more than 90,000 customers across 13 countries.

As a pioneer in the sustainable steel industry, Klöckner & Co plans to bring the Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions it can directly influence to net zero by 2040. By 2050, the company plans to bring its indirect Scope 3 emissions to Net Zero as well.

The collaboration with CO2 AI led to streamlining the process and obtaining a carbon footprint for the entire group in record time.

A hard-to-abate industry

The steel industry faces complex challenges in decarbonization, with a diverse global supply chain, variations in manufacturing techniques, energy sources, and types of steel. Data collection is also limited by available technology, for instance regarding raw material extraction involving pig iron or other elaborate operations.

As a pioneer in digitalization and sustainability, Klöckner & Co required very granular data to obtain an accurate calculation of its corporate carbon footprint. This required a platform capable of managing scale and delivering granular insights across its supply chain — and doing so on-demand.  

Obtaining consistent data across countries   

Accurately measuring the corporate carbon footprint is complex, especially for a group operating across 160 locations and roughly 200,000 products. But obtaining the highest degree of precision is key to effectively achieving Net Zero.

The first step involves building a reliable carbon emissions baseline, which itself requires getting clean and consistent data on activities performed. 

As a global company, Klöckner & Co’s data management is complex. However, with a clearly structured process for data collection and extraction, the group is able to identify and consolidate data across all countries in which it operates. 

Increasing accuracy with primary data and AI

Secondly, accuracy relies on selecting the most granular emissions factors for each activity, i.e. the coefficients describing the rate at which this activity releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

Klöckner & Co was able to fine-tune emission factors down to the level of each country. When available from a country, primary emissions information is chosen to compute the company carbon footprint. Otherwise, an AI-based emission factor matching was performed to reach the highest level of granularity per activity.

Matching emissions factors in record time

The process enabled Klöckner & Co to match the most relevant emissions factors for each activity, and therefore obtain an corporate carbon footprint in just a few weeks. 

The company is now ready with the highest confidence in their emission factors, in order to meet the rigorous standards set by the Science Based Targets Initiative and their customers' high expectations. 

Klöckner & Co is turned toward the future, through computing product-level carbon footprints and developing more digital tools such as Nexigen^® Data Services to enable its customers to reduce their own emissions. This contributes to a long-term, self-sustaining approach to business which drives the entire industry forward.