INTRODUCTION

Q&A WITH OUR SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF
SUSTAINABILITY & CHIEF TECHNOLOGY
OFFICER


Exploring Innovation: A Conversation with Our Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Chief Technology Officer:
 

The steel industry is ever-evolving, staying ahead of the curve requires constant innovation. We sat down with Christian Gianni, U. S. Steel's Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Chief Technology Officer to learn more about his journey to U. S. Steel and gain insights into the projects currently underway.

It was a long journey to U. S. Steel — nearly 9,000 miles! I’m originally from New Zealand — I have a funny accent that doesn’t really come out in print — and worked for many years as an engineer in my home country. I’ve always been interested in developing and building things.

I moved to the United States in 2010 to join Whirlpool, where I spent many years designing appliances to be more innovative and efficient. After that I worked briefly at Deka Research on medical devices; I’m very keen to use engineering and innovation to improve people’s lives.

And then I got a call from U. S. Steel. The opportunity that was presented to me — to work at a truly iconic company that, despite its deep historic roots, is deeply committed to innovating and to becoming more sustainable — was really too good to pass up. I joined U. S. Steel in late 2022 and have been thrilled to dive into the work.

In 2022, we launched our new pig iron caster at Gary Works. That means we are using our integrated facilities to produce a metallic that feeds our EAFs at U. S. Steel’s Big River Steel Works — up to 500,000 tons a year. This is a great example of the inherent synergies between our legacy footprint and our newer assets.

Speaking of our legacy footprint, we continue to invest in our integrated steelmaking facilities to make them more environmentally sustainable as well. We have recently embarked on an ambitious project with CarbonFree to capture and repurpose the CO2 emissions that come out of our blast furnaces at Gary.

Lastly, I’m also very pleased with our DR-grade pellet plant at Keetac, at our Minnesota mines. This move supports domestic manufacturing, simplifies complex global supply chains, and also aids sustainability, because DR-grade pellets eventually find their way into EAFs. It also helps us put U. S. Steel on more sustainable footing, because it’s helping us monetize our mining assets and gaining us new customers. This new facility became fully operational in May 2024.

Well, I’m most excited about the opportunity we have here to have a huge impact. Think about it: steelmaking is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, steel is utterly necessary for modern society, and will continue to be so. There is only one conclusion, then: steelmaking must reduce its carbon footprint. Steel isn’t going anywhere, so we need to make a big reduction in steelmaking’s GHG emissions.

I’m really excited about the ability to have a huge effect on reducing GHG emissions. We really can make a dent. Whether that’s through investing in new processes and products at our integrated facilities, or continuing to build out our EAF capacity, with BR2 coming online later this year, there is a ton to be excited about. I really do feel like we’re just getting started!

I’m also excited to be building on the legacy of a company with such a tremendous history. I feel truly privileged to work at U. S. Steel.

 

INTRODUCTION

At U. S. Steel, our mission of delivering profitable steel solutions for people and planet underlies everything we do. In 2023, supported by our Board of Directors (Board), we continued our work to fulfill this mission by executing our strategy to deliver the BEST for all our stakeholders.
Our culture is based on our S.T.E.E.L. Principles: Safety First; Trust and Respect; Environmental Stewardship; Excellence and Accountability; and Lawful and Ethical Conduct. We expect our employees and members of our Board to take personal responsibility to “do what’s right,” and our Code of Ethical Business Conduct serves as the foundation for the actions of our employees and directors. To further ensure that employees understand the Company’s expectations and all applicable rules, we provide annual ethics and compliance training to our employees and share communications about key compliance topics, including senior management messages underscoring the importance of doing business with integrity. In addition, through our annual policy certification process, employees of U. S. Steel Košice (USSK) in Košice, Slovakia, non-represented employees in the United States, and members of our Board certify their ongoing compliance with our Code of Ethical Business Conduct.