About Climate action Smarter future Industries Investors Sustainability Careers Media MT:NA ↗ €24.63 Homepage / Smarter future Sustainability Dr Alan Knight reflects on the sustainable nature of steel, and how that positions steel as the ideal material for a sustainable tomorrow. Listen to the sustainability podcast Podcast icon "...if steel hadn’t been invented, sustainability would invent steel. It’s perfect. It’s a perfect ingredient for a sustainable world.” Run the video to get a taste of the sustainability podcast Dr Alan Knight OBE Head of corporate responsibility and sustainable development Alan has over 25 years’ experience working with global companies and governments on sustainability. He joined ArcelorMittal in 2014 as their general manager for sustainable development and corporate responsibility. He is co-chairman of ResponsibleSteel and sits on the steering board of the Initiative for Responsible Mining. Alan created and chaired the Ebola Private Sector Mobilisation Group, which was a collaboration of over 100 companies sharing best practice and coordinating the corporate response to Ebola in West Africa. This work was recognised by the Clinton Global Citizenship awards in 2015. Previously he was sustainability director for Business in the Community (BITC) where he oversaw all their corporate sustainability programmes. He advised the Virgin Group on sustainable development for seven years and has worked with global companies as diverse as B&Q, where he led their full corporate responsibility and sustainability programme. He held similar roles in their parent company Kingfisher and SABMiller, the multibillion brewery company. He was also instrumental in founding and developing the Forest Stewardship Council. Alan was awarded the OBE in June 1998, in 2005 the US-based Rainforest Alliance presented him with a lifelong award and in 2013 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society for the Environment. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the ‘Futurising’ podcasts are the views of the individuals interviewed. As such, they do not necessarily represent the views of the company Listen to the sustainability podcast Find it here In the context of Alan Knight's sustainability podcast, David Clarke, our head of strategy and chief technology officer, highlights in this video the impact materials have on our planet, and how we aim to mitigate the risks, while responding to the global demand for steel. Related links Climate action report 2019 Featured articles Politics remain the biggest obstacle to climate change The Paris climate agreement has 185 signatories and a growing number of countries, as well as companies, have ambitions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.That is the good news. The harder part is that “solving” climate change poses very complex technical and political challenges. Find out more The path to low-carbon steelmaking Because a developed economy needs so much steel, and about three-quarters of the world is still developing we will still need to make a great deal of it from scratch, despite recycling or reusing existing stock when it reaches the end of its use. Find out more Taking care of business and the environment is possible with smart carbon technology If we can recycle our steel for the greater good, why not recycle our carbon emissions to solve one of the sector’s biggest challenges? Find out more Maintaining our position as a trusted community brand We want our communities to see us as partners in local socio-economic development, and trust us to have an open dialogue when challenges arise. ArcelorMittal’s sustainable development outcomes are aimed at helping us to be such a company. Some stakeholders call this a ‘license to operate’. What this means for us is that ArcelorMittal is not just a business to business brand. ArcelorMittal is a ‘community brand’ Find out more Futurising Listen to our futurising podcast series on Soundcloud Listen on soundcloud Back to top Subscribe Sign up for alerts ©2021 ArcelorMittal Corporate library Contact us Suppliers Terms of Use Privacy Policy Accessibility UK Modern Slavery Act COVID-19 (coronavirus): ArcelorMittal response We use cookies We use cookies on this website. Please indicate whether or not you accept our use of cookies. For more information read our Cookie Policy. Accept Decline