Steel giant AM/NS India names Chief Sustainability Officer

ArcelorMittal-Nippon Steel AM/NS India has named Arvind Bodhankar as its Chief Sustainability Officer after announcing an updated carbon intensity reduction target earlier this month.

AM/NS India, a joint venture between Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal and Japan’s Nippon Steel that reported a year-in-year 160% jump in earnings in Q3 2023, is aiming to cut emissions intensity by 20% by 2030.

In its inaugural climate action report (released February 5), the firm said it would achieve this result by switching 100% of its grid electricity needs to renewables, increasing steel recycling capacity and improving technology – as well as investing in carbon capture and storage.

AM/NS India sustainability efforts

According to its Chairman Aditya Mittal, AM/NS has already reduced emissions intensity by one-third since 2015. In 2021, the firm reported Scope 1 emissions of 14.75 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, up from 12.49 million in 2020, due to the installation of a natural gas combined cycle plant to power its operations. In turn, Scope 2 emissions decreased by almost 1 million tonnes. Scope 3 emissions stood at just 193,913 tonnes in 2021.

Steel is a notoriously difficult sector to decarbonise due to the very high heat needed to process iron ore. According to the latest State of Climate Action report, the carbon intensity of global steel production currently remains around 1.89 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel. At AM/NS India, that intensity stood at 2.23 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel in 2021.

AM/NS India CSO profile

As Chief Sustainability Officer, Bodhankar will lead the company’s sustainability agenda, defining and implementing its decarbonisation, environmental and climate strategy. He appears to be AM/NS’ first CSO, though the company has had a Group Head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Vikas Yadvendu, since its formation in 2019.

Bodhankar will report to Chief Operating Officer Wim Van Gerven. He announced his appointment on Linkedin this week, adding: “Sustainability is a key focus for the industry and I am eager to work with the talented team at AMNS India to drive positive change.”

Based in Mumbai, he joins from cement conglomerate Dalmia Bharat Group, where he was an executive director and Chief Risk Officer for the past two years. He has also held another Chief Sustainability Officer role at UltraTech Cement since 2018.