News Release
JFE Steel Corporation
JFE Steel’s Steel Bar and Wire Rod Products Certified Under
Japan’s “EcoLeaf” Environmental Product Declaration Program
JFE Steel Corporation announced today that steel bar and wire rod products1 manufactured at the company’s Sendai Works and the Kurashiki plant of its West Japan Works have newly received EcoLeaf certification from the Sustainable Management Promotion Organization (SuMPO) in Japan. The certifications, which involved third-party audits and verification of data provided by the company, will enable customers to quantitatively and objectively evaluate the lifecycle environmental impact of JFE Steel’s sustainable products.
EcoLeaf is a Type-III environmental product declaration (EPD) that complies with the ISO 14025:2006 standard, which defines the principles and procedures for quantitative disclosure of the environmental impacts of products and services, from raw material procurement to disposal and recycling.
JFE Steel’s certified steel bars and wire rods, which cover a wide range of products in various sizes, offer excellent surface quality suitable for use in automotive components. Customers can now use these products with even greater confidence and assurance thanks to the EcoLeaf certification of JFE Steel’s transparent environmental-impact disclosures.
EcoLeaf badge of SuMPO’s EPD program in Japan
The Japan Iron and Steel Federation, in an effort to support the EcoLeaf program, introduced its Product Category Rule2 (PCR) for calculating environmental impacts in August 2019. The PCR complies with the ISO 20915 and JIS Q 20915 standards, both of which take into account recycling capacity when determining quantitative environmental impact.
JFE Steel’s parent company JFE introduced its JFE Group Environmental Vision for 2050 as part of a broad-based initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, under which JFE is actively expanding its groupwide initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions through eco-friendly products. JFE Steel, in addition to reducing its own direct CO2 emissions, is committed to contributing to a more sustainable world by supplying high-quality, eco-friendly steel products that offer excellent recyclability for continued reuse over and over, and also significantly lower per-unit environmental impact compared to many other materials.3
1 The registered names and registration numbers of the EcoLeaf-certified products are:
- Steel bars and bar-in-coils for construction (Sendai): JR-AJ-23017E
- Round steel bars for construction (Kurashiki): JR-AJ-23018E
- Steel bars, bar-in-coils and wire rods for construction (Kurashiki): JR-AJ-23019E
- Wire rods for construction (Sendai): JR-AJ-23020E
- Steel bars and bar-in-coils (Sendai): JR-AW-23021E
- Wire rods (Sendai): JR-AW-23022E
- Round steel bars and square steel bars (Kurashiki): JR-AW-23023E
- Steel bars, bar-in-coils and wire rods (Kurashiki): JR-AW-23024E
2 The PCR was first introduced for screw-joint rebar in 2018 and then expanded to cover all steel products in August 2019.
3 The greenhouse gas emissions of steel products per equivalent functional component are about one-fourth to one-fifth those of aluminum and carbon fiber. See JFE Group Sustainability Report 2023, Value of Steel.
About JFE Steel Corporation
JFE Steel Corporation, one of the world’s leading integrated steel producers, was established through the consolidation of NKK Corporation and Kawasaki Steel Corporation in 2003. The company operates several steelworks in Japan and numerous branch offices and affiliates throughout the world. JFE Steel leverages world-class technologies and know-how to produce a wide range of products based on its “Only One, Number One” strategy of focusing on unique and best-in-class products. The company reported consolidated sales of 2,255 billion yen and consolidated crude steel output of 23.96 million tons in the fiscal year ended March 2021.
# # #
