Sustainability

∙ Carbon emissions are a key topic for our business. Gerdau’s emissions are closely discussed and monitored in its Strategy & Sustainability Committee, Board of Directors and Risk Committee.

∙ We now submit reports our operations in Brazil to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), reinforcing our commitment to combating climate change and to the transparent reporting of our environmental initiatives. We have undertaken commitments on climate change to reduce, by 2031, our greenhouse gas emissions, which already are below the average of the global industry. Learn more about our goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

∙ To Gerdau, the circular economy is part of a more sustainable path to the industry’s future. By engaging companies, consumers and society in general in the production chain and using our steel and co-products, we extend the life cycle and maintain innovation and technology at the center of our solutions.

∙ We are the largest recycler of ferrous scrap in Latin America.

∙ We remove obsolete materials from cities and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions into the production of new steel products, while creating jobs and generating income by mobilizing an extensive network of scrap suppliers and traders.

∙ We use materials generated as secondary products during the steel production process to create co-products, which are used in various applications, such as road paving, railroad ballast, casting, cement and ceramics.

∙ In 2020, we reused around 78% of the solid waste generated by our production.

∙ We invest in water management through water efficiency programs involving recirculation, which reduces not only the volume of water withdrawals, but also the volume of effluent discharges and their environmental impact.

∙ We also reuse up to 98% of the waste water of our production processes.

∙ With an eye on the future and reinforcing its commitment to clean energy generation the use of renewable resources, Gerdau has energy efficiency projects that adopt solar power.

. We are constantly investing in new energy sources, such as photovoltaic farms in Minas Gerais (Brazil) and in Texas (United States).

∙ We have a forestry base of over 254,000 hectares in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 91,000 hectares of which are set aside for biodiversity conservation.

∙ Our planted eucalyptus forests are a source of renewable raw materials for producing charcoal, which is used as a bioreducer in steel production. And over the next five years, our commitment to sustainability will increase even more, by expanding our forestry base by 20%.