EMSTEEL Group, the UAE’s largest steel and building materials producer, has launched TrueGreen—a sustainability identity aimed at consolidating decades of emissions-reduction initiatives under a single framework.
EMSTEEL’s announcement builds on a string of milestones that have set the company apart within the MENA region. It was the first steelmaker in the area to achieve ResponsibleSteel™ certification, an international standard for social and environmental accountability. More technically significant, it also piloted electric process gas heaters (ePGHs)—a world first in the sector—designed to replace fossil-fueled thermal systems with electrically powered alternatives.
These advances follow earlier projects that positioned the firm as a regional outlier in industrial decarbonization: a carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project with ADNOC’s Al Reyadah; a hydrogen-based steelmaking pilot with Masdar; and the integration of clean electricity sourcing into operations. The cumulative effect has been measurable, with EMSTEEL reporting an emissions intensity of 0.67 tons of CO₂ per ton of steel—well below the global average of around 1.9 tons, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Where TrueGreen diverges from earlier initiatives is in its emphasis on transparency and data. Every TrueGreen steel product comes with an independently verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), accompanied by digital monitoring systems that provide batch-specific carbon metrics. This level of granularity addresses one of the steel sector’s persistent challenges: customers and regulators increasingly require not just lower-carbon products, but auditable evidence of performance.
For developers and contractors, such data can be crucial when competing in sustainability-driven tenders or when facing compliance tests under frameworks such as the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). With CBAM entering its transitional phase in 2023 and full financial obligations set for 2026, exporters of carbon-intensive goods to the EU—including steel—are under mounting pressure to disclose precise emissions data or risk cost penalties.
TrueGreen has already been tested in high-profile projects. Aldar, a leading Abu Dhabi developer, used EMSTEEL’s low-carbon rebar in constructing the region’s first net-zero carbon mosque on Yas Island. While symbolic, the project illustrates how low-carbon steel is moving from pilot-scale production into the mainstream of regional construction. It also highlights a potential pathway for meeting the UAE’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), which targets a 79% reduction in built environment emissions by 2035.
