PAO Severstal, one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, announces that MSCI has revised the company's ESG rating from CCC to B.
The improvement is due to an increase in positions in the Ecology ": marked with progress in the areas" Climate Change "," Water Resources Management "," Biodiversity "," Emissions and Waste ". The MSCI ESG rating is assigned to global public companies and is designed to assess the long-term resilience of a company to ESG risks (environmental, social and corporate governance risks). For more information on the MSCI ESG rating, click here.
“The upgrade is a confirmation that Severstal's ESG work and our commitment to being as transparent as possible in these matters are receiving a response from the investment community. We hope that our efforts will continue to be reflected in the rankings and will further enhance the rankings. For us, as a socially responsible company, it is of fundamental importance how we contribute to the lives of future generations. In July 2020, the Board of Directors of Severstal approved a public goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions: by 2023, the company's enterprises will reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions by 3% compared to the level of 2020; in parallel, we are working on a long-term climate strategy. In addition, Severstal is implementing a consistent program to reduce environmental impact through a large-scale environmental re-equipment of its main assets. In December, we launched the first block of coke oven battery No. 11, designed taking into account the latest technical developments in the field of environmental protection, and in the near future we plan to commission a blast furnace No. 3, unique in terms of environmental parameters. We plan to reduce our emissions of pollutants to the atmosphere by 13% by 2025. Our goal is to achieve a leading position in ESG indicators and we are pleased that our efforts in this area are appreciated by investors, "commented Alexander Shevelev, General Director of Severstal.
Previously, the company announced an improvement in positions in other ESG ratings.
Sustaialyitcs reduced the risk level assigned to the company from 39.1 points in 2019 to 34.7 (the best result is 0). With this result, Severstal entered the top 10% of steel companies, ranking 14th out of 140.
In the SAM S&P (formerly RobecoSAM) rating, Severstal's positions rose by 7 points, from 41 to 48 points (from 100 possible). Thus, Severstal was ranked 15th in the rating of world metallurgical companies in the field of ESG (environmental, social aspects and corporate governance) in the SAMCorporate Sustaiability Assessmet rating.
FTSE Russell analytical agency confirmed the company's position in the FTSE4Good index as a result the revision, the company's rating was raised to 3.5 (3.0 in 2019 from the maximum possible 5.0).
In 2019, the company's investments in environmental projects amounted to about 750 million rubles. In the first half of 2020, the company invested 1.34 billion rubles in environmental activities.
