Integrating resource circulation and waste treatment to offer a new brand of product in our 35th year
With the global population now exceeding 8 billion, the world is transitioning to an era in which corporate activities are assessed for their ethics in line with demand to reduce the environmental burden caused by waste and pollutants, and to create a circular economy in which products and raw materials are recycled.
Since 1988, the Kyoei Steel Group has been manufacturing steel products while processing waste. We have long been engaged in the business of recycling resources by transforming disused iron and steel products (scrap and iron sources) into new products, while simultaneously reducing environmental burden by utilizing the high temperatures generated by electric arc furnaces (EAFs) to fully detoxify waste materials through melting. With regard to the types of waste we process, our journey began with medical waste such as syringes, and we have continued to take on the challenge of solving further social issues, such as expanding the range of waste processed to include asbestos and other difficult-to-process waste. In May 2024, we launched an outward-facing communication campaign by branding steel products manufactured through the complete detoxification melting process of medical waste in an EAF as “ethical steel.”
We will work to enhance our corporate value by spreading word of our value, backed by the Group’s achievements over these many years, to a wide range of stakeholders.
[Origin of the ethical steel logo]
Rebar is the invisible hero serving as the skeleton inside concrete and other structures. The logo visually illustrates the idea of ethical steel spreading seamlessly throughout society in Japan, overseas, and across the entire globe as if this rebar were to form an expansive mesh around it. The heart shape expresses the Kyoei spirit, the inner passion that underlies Kyoei Steel. More specifically, it expresses our employees’ attitude and pride toward ethical work, their concern for the environment, their spirit of facing social issues, and their aspiration to support Japan through the steel business.
Product-oriented branding as targeted by the Kyoei Steel Group
The goal is to create a new flow of expectations for the Kyoei Steel Group to contribute to social development and harmony with the global environment, starting with ethical steel, and for this flow tomove back and forth both to and from the Group.
EPD program uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. It is a system for quantitatively visualizing the environmental data of a product across its entire life cycle from the extraction of resources to its manufacture, distribution, use, and disposal or recycling.
We employ the EcoLeaf Environmental Labeling Program run by the Sustainable Management Promotion Organization (SuMPO) for four products—rebars, structural round bars, equal angle bars, and flat bars. U.S.-based Vinton Steel LLC has gained certification for rebars under the EPD program run by SCS Global Services.
With such systems in place, customers are able to evaluate the products they are using for environmental impact quantitatively and objectively, or use the information to make an informed purchase of eco-friendly products.
In buildings, when a certain amount of the products being used are certified through an environmental declaration, there is additional
merit in applying for LEED certification. LEED is the U.S.-based, globally recognized green rating system for buildings and cities, and such products can be an asset to customers who wish to acquire LEED certification.
