Severstal presented to the participants of the All-Russian Youth Ecological Forum “Ecosystem” a large-scale greening program of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, which the company is implementing jointly with leading dendrological scientists of the region.
The All-Russian Youth Ecological Forum “ECOSYSTEM” is being held in Cherepovets these days. Severstal is the main partner of the forum.
During the familiarization visit of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Alexander Kozlov, and the media at CherMK, where the guests were introduced to the main environmental facilities of the industrial site, General Director of the company Alexander Shevelev spoke about joint work with scientists Vologda region. This is the Green Shield project.
For Severstal, as a socially responsible company, it is of fundamental importance what contribution we make to the lives of future generations. Therefore, we devote a lot of attention and energy to environmental initiatives at our facilities. In 2020, Severstal, together with Cherepovets State University, carried out dendrological surveys of green spaces growing perimeter and within the main production facilities of CherMK. 132 gaterritories were surveyed; among the plants growing on the industrial site, eight species included in the Red Data Book of the Vologda Oblast were identified. Taking into account the recommendations of specialists, a unified standard for landscaping of an industrial site was prepared, a program for the maintenance of existing landscaping and proposals for promising landscaping for 2021 and subsequent periods were drawn up, ”commented Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal.
The selection of plants for landscaping is carried out with taking into account their absorptive capacity to emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases, in order to achieve the creation of a "green shield" around the plant, as well as taking into account their capacity for soil reclamation.
In 2021, about 3,500 large trees will be planted on the territory of CherMK with high dust absorption capacity. Greening the perimeter of the industrial site, taking into account the new plantings of large-sized trees, will help precipitate about eight thousand tons of dust per year. The biodiversity of the site will be increased by 170 new varieties of plants.
In order to manage the risks of possible changes in biodiversity arising from the company's economic activities and the operation of its production facilities, in 2020 the company's ecologists have developed and implemented a uniform for all business units " Severstal "standard" Monitoring and preservation of biodiversity "the program" Green Shield "is the first and largest program implemented in this direction. The project is based on the principle “prevent - reduce - compensate - restore.
“ It is obvious that greening projects are only a small part of our large-scale program aimed at improving the environmental situation in the city of Cherepovets, where our main production site is located. Severstal is a member of the Clean Air national project, within the framework of which we have undertaken to implement 16 projects and activities at CherMK worth 10.5 billion rubles, which will reduce emissions of pollutants into the city's atmosphere by 22.5% by 2025. One of these activities are being implemented at our iron ore asset - Olkone, the rest in Cherepovets. Thanks to the Clean Air FP measures since the beginning of their implementation, we have already reduced emissions by more than 12%, this is almost 36 thousand tons, spending 6.8 billion rubles for this, "said Alexander Shevelev.
How notes Alexander Shevelev, work to reduce the environmental load is not only a factor in improving the quality of life in Cherepovets, but also an impetus to its development. To a large extent, thanks to the company's efforts, within the framework of federal programs, the city receives more environmentally friendly buses running on gas engine fuel, a large program is planned to replace tram fleet and track reconstruction.
