What is the meaning of Vireo?
The name ‘Vireo’ was the result of an internal naming competition among our employees and impressed us with its ambiguous meaning. Translated from Latin, Vireo means ‘green’. At the same time, Vireo is also the name of a bird family whose greenish plumage is reminiscent of nature – which we want to protect with sustainable stainless steel. That’s why this bird also features in our logo.
With Vireo, we want to offer our customers the opportunity to build a CO₂-reduced supply chain. To this end, Vireo is offered in three categories, each of which comes from different manufacturers and impresses with its specific properties and key figures.
Our CEO Stefan Glave comments:
‘With our brand Vireo, we offer CO₂-reduced stainless steel products as a service centre. This allows us to increase the security of supply for our customers and close a gap in the supply chain.’
CO²-reduced stainless steel
Sustainability starts with Vireo, our brand for environmentally friendly stainless steel.
In 2023, 58.4 million tonnes of stainless steel were produced worldwide, 5.9 million tonnes of which were in Europe. While Asia mainly uses nickel-pig-iron (NPI) with high CO2 emissions of 6-8.5 kg per kilogramme of stainless steel, European production focuses on stainless steel scrap, which enables emissions of 2-2.5 kg.
While 75-85% stainless steel scrap is already used in Europe and CO₂ emissions are reduced to 2-2.5 kg per kg of stainless steel, we even take a step further:
With Vireo, we reduce emissions by at least 25% compared to the European standard. Our materials are divided into categories that make the CO₂ emissions from the production of the mother coil transparent. The top class, Vireo-ultra, even achieves less than 50% of the European average.
The additional reduction in CO₂ emissions is essentially achieved through three measures. These measures will enable the manufacturer to achieve significant improvements in Scope 2 and 3.
Measures
- Further increase in the proportion of scrap in production (quantitative).
- Improved purity of the scrap (qualitative).
- Use of electrical energy from renewable sources (CO2-neutral).
Vireo – Our green wing flapping into a sustainable future
With Circle Green®, Outokumpu is setting a new benchmark: this material reduces the carbon footprint by 93% compared to the global industry average – a clear step towards environmentally sustainable production.
To mark the occasion, Niklas Wass (President – Business Line, Stainless Europe) and Jörg Müller (Senior Vice President) from Outokumpu visited us. They symbolically presented us with a Circle Green® brand coil and the corresponding certificate.
Jörg Müller emphasised:
‘We see a continuously increasing demand for CO₂-reduced stainless steel. Although Circle Green has only been on the market for a relatively short time, we have already been able to win a number of regular customers for our product.’
Niklas Wass added:
‘From our point of view, the wave of demand for Circle Green started in Scandinavia and has now spread to whole Europe.’
Our CEOs Micha and Stefan Glave and our Head of Purchasing Manfred Dehne ceremoniously accepted the handover. The CO₂ equivalent of this coil is 0.668 t/e – an impressive and forward-looking value.
