SSA is owned and operated by the Australian Steel Institute
The Steel Sustainability Australia (SSA) entity has been established by the Australian Steel Institute (ASI) to be the over-arching governance body and program manager to the Steel Sustainability Australia (SSA) Certification Program, and to provide a membership service to the steel industry for best practice sustainability.
Launched in January 2023 and superseding ASI’s Environmental Sustainability Charter (ESC), the SSA Program is designed to identify sustainable steel suppliers by assessing the environmental and social impact of their steelwork manufacturing and processing operations.
It provides a holistic sustainability best practice platform for steel industry members which enables wide participation for all steel sectors and companies, common approaches to measuring sustainability performance for the built environment, and escalates strong sustainability credentials for steel.
The SSA Program engages the entire steel supply chain by certifying downstream steel distributors, fabricators, roll formers, and reinforcing processors and verifying upstream steel producers against best practice environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators. The SSA Program is a recognised initiative under the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) Responsible Products Framework (RPF). Certification to each SSA level have corresponding Responsible Product Values (RPVs) that meet the requirements of the 4 Green Star Responsible Products Credits under the ‘Responsible’ category in the Green Star Buildings rating tool.
Conformity with the SSA Program is audited according to the level of certification sought (L1, L2A, L2B, L3). Desktop audits are carried out by independent third party auditors. A conflict-of-interest process is included in the auditor contract of engagement, to ensure that no conflict of interest exists between the auditor and either the Applicant or SSA. Based on the audit results and recommendation, SSA makes the certification decision and issues SSA certification where applicable. For a Company and their manufacturing site/s to achieve and maintain certification they must comply with the Program Rules and have no major non-conformances to the SSA Technical Requirements. Minor non-conformances do not preclude certification but must be corrected prior to re-certification.
