Nucor Exec a Star of Women of Carbon Doc at Climate Week NYC

The largest steel producer in North America, Nucor produces around a quarter of all raw steel in the US.

On top of that, it is the largest recycler of any material in the western hemisphere and prides itself as one of the most sustainable manufacturers on the North American continent.

Nucor makes steel through an electric arc furnace, relying on scrap — meaning its two biggest costs are raw materials and the energy it consumes to repurpose it. In many of the states where it does business, Nucor is the local utility’s largest customer.

So when it comes to decarbonisation efforts, it is important to Nucor to well and truly lead the charge.

Operating differently from its other heavy industry peers, Nucor — a company of 32,000 teammates across more than 300 locations — has been producing steel via electric arc furnaces — different to traditional steel making ways — for 60 years. This method means a third less of the carbon is embodied in Nucor steel compared that made in a blast furnace.

“If we can find ways to reduce and find better sources for clean energy and accelerate that transition, we not only directly benefit, but all of our customers who need cleaner steel or energy do as well,” Nucor’s General Manager of Energy Solutions Service Tabitha Stine said in an exclusive interview with Energy Digital. 

Tabitha is one of a band of female executives who star in a new documentary, Women of Carbon, which premieres at Climate Week NYC on 24 September.

She added: “What we find is all of our industrial partners that are in the realm of construction or building or scaling, they all need steel and they all need energy. And guess what? We also need energy. So how do we help our customers? 

“That’s the driver and appetite that really I think started the momentum of decarbonising and is now accelerating it so we can support our communities and customers more broadly."

Women of Carbon at Climate Week NYC

One overarching theme that came from filmmakers making a documentary about carbon is that a lot of people leading in this field are women.

“At a Women in Steel conference in Pittsburgh, I heard one of the keynotes say to us that we are sitting in a role that’s either a brand new or never been a seat held by a female before,” she shared. “The weight, the gravity, the opportunity that we all have to execute and also show by example — the people that are coming behind you — is deafening.

“The responsibility is there. There are so many pockets of opportunities in the built environment. This documentary is really an opportunity to highlight so many different layers and levels of what the construction and built world will look like in the future through the lens of decarbonisation — what’s happening at a grassroots level with universities and students all the way to what’s happening at industrial scale. 

“As a mother, it really, really matters to me that my children have a world that I left them in better hands than the way it was handed to me. The urgency of that I think has never been more apparent than it is right now. We’re coming up to a future energy challenge that none of us have ever experienced in our lifetimes. 

Although participation in this film was compelling for Nucor, Tabitha’s involvement boils down to human responsibility. She is a structural engineer and steel designer by trade, but more importantly as a mother of three, and Tabitha’s daughter — a college freshman studying environmental science with a major in sustainability — was also interviewed for the documentary.

“There weren't even opportunities to major in sustainability when I went to college,” Tabitha exclaimed.

“My daughter directly feels the urgency more than I think we do. She’s getting ready to step into this situation, a mess. What’s her job? What’s her generation’s job? To see the excitement and the responsibility in kids to actually roll up their sleeves is super inspiring. 

“For me, this whole thing has come full circle. On a professional and personal level, I'm super excited about this documentary.”

Partnerships crucial to Nucor’s decarbonisation journey

As a large energy consumer as a steel company, Nucor realises the need to work with partners to explore and accelerate new technologies like long-duration battery storage, advanced geothermal and fusion power that can help power its steel mills with clean energy.

Realising it cannot achieve its energy and sustainability goals alone, Nucor works with large tech companies like Google and Microsoft to help accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative technologies, leading by example. It also partners with ExxonMobil and is working on carbon sequestering technology to use at a Nucor facility in Louisiana.

“Working with Google and Microsoft is a perfect example of non-traditional partners of a steel company,” Tabitha explained. “While we're a steel company, we also think of ourselves as a progressive company. 

“What we’ve found is that the partners that we’re working with today are usually big data companies. Longstanding partners have been the big automotive companies, but they need battery companies to succeed. They need data to succeed. Everything keeps coming back to data and energy. 

“In this commitment, it's first-of-a-kind technology. We’ve all been using solar and wind in a variety of ways, either at our facilities or in PPAs, but the amount of energy that it takes to power a steel mill — doing business and powering a steel mill in the middle of the night when the wind is off and the sun is down — means we can’t just do it with that with clean, renewable energy.”

This is where Nucor is working with long duration battery storage (LDBS) to store renewable energy to power its mills overnight. 

Tabitha added: “Nucor, Google and Microsoft — all three of us getting together has been a remarkable partnership learning exercise.

“We’re kind of a junkyard gang. You wouldn't expect to see us all together hanging out. But we all are big companies with huge appetites for energy, all growth companies.

“So why not work together? Why work alone? It’s been a really exciting journey.”

Read more insights from Tabitha and Nucor in the January edition of ClimateTech Digital.

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