Low Steel Emission Standard (Less)

LESS is open to all companies that want to voluntarily map, communicate and verify their progress in reducing their climate-relevant emissions during steel production through to the hot-rolled product.

The figure above shows the schematic progression of the classification system for categorising products depending on their greenhouse gas intensity and scrap rate. It should already be pointed out here that the large differences that currently still exist due to the scrap rate will become smaller and smaller as ambition increases. A core element of this proposal is therefore also to take into account the use of steel scrap through a so-called "sliding scale". This means that the CO₂e intensity of the ton of steel produced is set in relation to this and taken into account with the help of a sliding scale. This takes account of the fact that the availability of steel scrap is limited worldwide and that there is no clear demarcation criterion for differentiating between the two routes (primary and secondary route).

The labelling system and label will serve to make the gradual progress towards climate neutrality of products, locations and companies transparent and make an important contribution to the development of markets for emission-reduced raw materials and products.

The methodology to be used to determine the class is described in the LESS rulebook. 

Example PCF

The label states the CO₂-footprint (product carbon footprint) according to DIN EN ISO 14067:2019-02 and corresponding certification or Publicly Available Specifications PAS 2050 (2011) and corresponding certification, stating the certificate or certificate number. Further information on the scrap rate and class is displayed in an easy-to-read format.

Example EPD

The label states the global warming potential total (GWPtotal) according to an environmental product declaration (EPD) as a sum over the production stage (modules A1-A3) in compliance with the internationally applicable standards (DIN EN ISO 14040 DIN EN - 2021-02, DIN EN ISO 14044 - 2021-02, DIN EN ISO 14025 - 2011-10 and DIN EN 15804 - 2022-03), stating the declaration number. Further information on the scrap rate and class is displayed in an easy-to-read format.

Read more about this on the WVS website: www.stahl-online.de