Envases Europe, a leading global manufacturer of innovative packaging solutions, and Tata Steel Nederland, a leading producer of high-quality steel products, today announce a strategic collaboration to make Carbon Lite steel available to Envases’ customers. This new mass balance offering enables fillers and brands to lower the CO₂e footprint associated with the steel in their packaging while maintaining the high standards of quality, safety and performance.

The introduction of Carbon Lite steel reflects the shared ambition of both companies to help customers meet their sustainability objectives. By incorporating mass-balanced Carbon Lite steel into its packaging portfolio, Envases Europe provides a new, practical and credible pathway for fillers and brands to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

Tata Steel Nederland is progressing its Green Steel Project to gradually change the way steel is produced in IJmuiden. This includes the planned use of more sustainable steelmaking technologies that will significantly reduce direct CO₂ emissions, lessen the impact on the surrounding environment and increase the use of scrap. The long-term ambition is to achieve net-zero steel production by 2045. Meanwhile, the company offers a suite of sustainability solutions based on mass balance, book-and-claim and embodied emissions approaches. These solutions support customers in reducing their carbon emissions and advancing circularity throughout the steel value chain.

The CO₂e reductions associated with Carbon Lite steel supplied by Envases are derived from recent decarbonisation projects that Tata Steel Nederland has implemented within its packaging steel production route. These reductions are independently verified by DNV (an independent assurance and certification body) and allocated to specific steel quantities using a certified mass-balance accounting framework. Through this collaboration, Envases Europe passes these third-party verified emission reduction declarations directly to customers to support their corporate carbon accounting under the GHG Protocol.

“Bringing mass-balanced Carbon Lite steel to our customers is an important step in helping our partners navigate the challenge of reducing supply chain emissions,” said Rikke Helstrup, Head of Sustainability at Envases Europe. “Carbon Lite steel provides our clients with the third-party assured data they need for their corporate carbon accounting and Scope 3 reporting, ensuring full transparency to avoid double counting without compromising on packaging quality.”

The collaboration between Envases Europe and Tata Steel Nederland exemplifies the importance of partnerships across the value chain to progress GHG-emission reductions. “This partnership demonstrates how collaboration across the value chain can accelerate investment in further CO₂e reduction projects at Tata Steel Nederland,” adds Dennis de Koe, Director Sales Packaging. “We are proud to work with Envases Europe to help also customers further down our value chain reduce their Scope 3 emissions.”

Steel is the most recycled material in the world and can be recycled repeatedly without loss of quality. With an average recycling rate of 84%, steel packaging is one of the most recycled packaging materials in Europe, thereby keeping valuable resources in circulation.