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seven years it needs to grow, than it emits when you produce the charcoal. Therefore, it’ s agreed by international standards that it’ s a zero-emission raw material. However, this only applies to charcoal from reforested areas. It is prohibited to cut native trees.”
Silvia describes reforested charcoal as AVB’ s most important raw material, alongside iron ore.“ Eighty-five to 90 percent of my costs go into charcoal and iron ore,” she states.“ They are the heart of our company. We buy the iron ore from Vale, our sole supplier. With the charcoal, we decided to control the planting, harvesting, and manufacturing ourselves, rather than buying from market, as this gives us more control in terms of quality, availability and traceability. We bought 220,000 hectares of land, with around 80,000-90,000 trees planted and, due to Brazil laws, the remainder of the land is a completely preserved area.”
Certified annually by SGS audit company through World Steel Association and GHG Protocol methodology since 2018, AVB has achieved a low carbon emission certification, after its emissions were found to be very low on a commercial scale – even lower than the steel mill projects planned in Sweden, Germany, and the US.“ For us,
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