Corporate responsibility report 2005 - Tata Steel

How do we protect the environment?
Figure 7 Compliance with emission limits
100%
99%
98%
97%
96%
95%
Figure 8 Energy consumption
(GJ/tonne steel)
21
20
19
18
17
16
2005
Q1
2005
Q2
■ Continuous measurements
(air and water combined)
■ Spot measurements
(air and water combined)
■ 2005 target
2005
Q3
2005
Q4
1999
2000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
(i) 1999 data is estimated.
(ii) The small increase in 2005, compared to the
two previous years, was due to an increase in
the proportion of BF-route steel in our total
annual production mix.
significant in this: the establishment of high-level corrective
action plans at sites with an individual compliance rate
worse than 96%; and the continuing scrutiny of compliance
performance at Executive Committee and Board Health,
Safety and Environment Committee meetings. Figure 7
shows our improving compliance performance. We recognise
that we need to maintain and improve on this trend, which
is why we have retained our target of 99% compliance
for 2006.
There were no environmental prosecutions or fines in relation
to our activities during 2005. However, a small number
of incidents occurred during the year which resulted in
regulatory action being taken against us:
• The Environment Agency issued enforcement notices
relating to procedural breaches of the Pollution Prevention
and Control (PPC) permit at Corus Tubes, Corby, and to
maintenance arrangements for the steel melting shop fume
extraction system at Corus Engineering Steels, Rotherham.
• Following complaints from residents in the vicinity of
Teesside Cast Products, Redcar, the Environment Agency
varied the PPC permit to include improvements to the
unloading of iron ore cargoes at the wharf.
Climate change and energy use
The issue of climate change became increasingly prominent
during 2005, as a consensus developed among the scientific
community about the role of man-made CO 2
emissions
in global warming. Although typical CO 2
emissions per tonne
of steel are now around 50% lower than 40 years ago,
the steel industry is still a significant contributor to global
industrial CO 2
emissions, and is therefore contributing to
achieving a worldwide solution. Corus is a major partner
in ULCOS (ultra-low CO 2
steelmaking), a European research
project to investigate technologies that could substantially
reduce CO 2
emissions in the steelmaking process (see case
study on opposite page).
In the short to medium term, our emphasis is on reducing
emissions incrementally, wherever this can be achieved
in a cost-effective manner. Although more than 80% of
emissions from our integrated steelworks are irreducible
process emissions, our combustion-related CO 2
emissions
are closely linked with energy use, and over recent years, we
have been successful in significantly reducing the amount
of energy that we use to make each tonne of steel. This is
shown in Figure 8. The restructuring of UK operations, which
involved rationalising our steelmaking activities from six sites
in 2001 to four at the end of 2005, has played a substantial
part in this. The small increase in energy intensity in 2005
was attributable to a temporary reduction in production
levels in our electric arc furnace (EAF) plants which use
less energy per tonne of liquid steel produced. Production
via the EAF-route is projected to increase in 2006 following
the completion of the rationalisation programme.
22 Corus Corporate Responsibility Report 2005