ECOVADIS: A SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN

U. S. Steel strives to achieve the highest standards of supply chain sustainability for environmental and social criteria, while ensuring the reliable delivery of our products. Our Supplier Code of Conduct specifies supplier standards for ethics, legal compliance, environmental protection, human rights and working conditions.

In 2023, our Procurement team engaged EcoVadis to collect data on our suppliers’ ESG policies, practices, performance and measurement. We chose EcoVadis because of its best-in-class capabilities. Its methodology, which is backed by trained sustainability analysts and maps to detailed industry standards and regulations, ensures reliable sustainability data, leading to better supplier collaboration, consistent performance measurement and clear paths for improvement. Our initial campaign included reaching out to our top suppliers to either complete the assessment process with EcoVadis or share their existing scorecard with U. S. Steel. We conducted a supplier kickoff webinar in May, setting a goal for our suppliers to achieve a minimum score of 50 within the next three years.

EcoVadis analyzes the quality of a company’s sustainability management system at the time of the assessment and provides a score of 1-100, 100 being the best possible score. Our initial focus was to onboard our top 200 suppliers to EcoVadis, and we intend to expand the program in 2024 to the rest of our supply base. We will also use the EcoVadis portal to collaborate with our suppliers to improve their existing score through continuous improvement initiatives.

Sustainability training was a key focus area for the Procurement team as part of the EcoVadis implementation. All members of the organization used the EcoVadis e-learning academy throughout 2023 to expand their knowledge on sustainability topics, with over 100 hours of training completed.

In order to progress on our Scope 2 emissions reduction, we are currently working to both lower and verify the reduction of our purchased power greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint at all our plants and facilities. An important way for us to mark our progress towards this goal is through Emission-Free Energy Certificates (EFECs) conferred by our power supplier. The certificates confirm that purchased power, used for a specific time period and facility, generated no emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides nor nitrogen oxides. In 2023, one of our electricity suppliers extended EFECs for power purchased in the deregulated states where key U. S. Steel facilities operate.

The plants and facilities covered by the certificates include our Clairton, Edgar Thomson and Irvin manufacturing plants in the Mon Valley region of Pennsylvania; Research and Technology Center in Munhall, Pennsylvania; Business Service Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and our manufacturing plant in Granite City, Illinois. We continue to work with utilities that service our plants to investigate renewable and low-carbon emissions energy projects that can help us meet our GHG emissions reduction goals.