The LKAB Group is a significant player within the mining and metallurgy industry and conducts activities that impact on the environment. Just like all other mining companies, LKAB is dependent on access to land and water. That means that we have a huge responsibility for ensuring that our operations are as sustainable as possible.
In order for LKAB to remain a leading high-quality and sustainable supplier of highly processed iron ore products, we need to consider sustainability in everything we do. Our work is characterised by environmental considerations, which means that we work on quality improvement measures throughout the group.
We have a responsibility to ensure that resources are available in order to achieve our ambitious environmental and energy goals. Equally, we have a responsibility to train our employees and suppliers and to encourage them to participate in our environmental and energy work.
Obligations and responsibilities
Thanks to increased awareness and vigorous measures to help us realise an even more eco-smart and climate-smart LKAB, discharges of particulates, sulphur dioxide and fluorine have been halved since 1980 – while pellet production has more than tripled over the same period. We are convinced that sustainable solutions are always a benefit, financially, socially and environmentally.
LKAB will, as the bare minimum, comply with applicable laws, regulations and other requirements within the environmental and energy field in the countries where we operate. But we still want to do more. LKAB will generate prosperity by being one of the most innovative and resource-efficient mining companies in the world. We will make use of Sweden's iron ore resources in a responsible manner and ensure sustainable competitiveness and long-term value creation.
LKAB has introduced a number of measures to reduce environmental impact by focusing on key environmental issues. This involves measures to reduce energy consumption, to secure energy supply and energy efficiencies, as well as measures to reduce emissions into the air and thus reduce our impact on the surrounding environment. Furthermore, we are actively working to reduce discharges into water and so safeguard the good quality of our surrounding watercourses. We are also working to increase our proportion of recycling and reduce our impact on the landscape. Our land use guidelines mean that, among other things, we strive for ecological remediation and to minimise our impact on biodiversity.
Environmental impact
LKAB's mining activities give rise to an environmental impact on the surrounding landscape and community, in the form of emissions into the air and discharges into water, noise, vibrations and land impact. Therefore, we have huge responsibility for continuously improving energy performance, and preventing and minimising environmental impact.
We are working on the environmental and energy issue on several fronts and are fighting for a sustainable mining and steel industry. During 2016, LKAB, together with Vattenfall and SSAB, initiated a project for a carbon dioxide-free steel industry.
We have adopted several ambitious environmental and energy goals for our activities. One example is to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by 12 per cent compared with 2015 levels by 2021. Another example is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent per tonne of finished product by 2020.