🇸🇪 Plannja, part of Ruukki, first in Scandinavia with fossil-free steel roofing for homes

Press release from SSAB

Plannja, a manufacturer of sheet metal products and part of Ruukki Construction, will be the first in Scandinavia to deliver residential roofing products featuring fossil-free steel. The pilot delivery will go to a residential area being built by OBOS in Björröd in Västra Götaland, Sweden. The products will be produced from the parent company SSAB’s fossil-free steel at Plannja’s production facilities in Järnforsen and Landsbro, Sweden during the remainder of this year.

In January 2024, Plannja will deliver roofing sheets made of SSAB’s fossil-free steel to OBOS. OBOS, a market-leading producer of single-family homes, has a clear sustainability strategy and ambition to reduce the climate impact both at the production stage and throughout the lifecycle of the home. The delivery will be the first of its kind in Sweden, and will go to a carefully selected housing project in Björröd in Västra Götaland.

The project consists of eight single-family homes, which will soon be able to boast roofs made of fossil-free steel. The roofing product used is the profile Plannja Trend, using a bio-based color coating with Swedish rapeseed oil, which provides an additional environmental bonus. Outside Scandinavia, Ruukki Construction offers the corresponding product as Ruukki Classic.

“We take a very positive view of this initiative, where we, together with Plannja, take responsibility for reducing the climate impact of housing construction. At the same time, we are meeting the long-term growing demand for housing with a lower climate impact. OBOS has a long and successful collaboration with Plannja. Having a steady supplier is crucial to be efficient in our respective companies’ production processes,” says Joakim Henriksson, CEO of OBOS Sweden.

For the housing project in Björröd, the roofing sheets and fittings will be produced from fossil-free steel in Plannja’s production facilities in Järnforsen and Landsbro, Sweden.

“We strive to lead the construction and house manufacturing industry towards a fossil-free future. By introducing fossil-free steel in our roofing and façade products, we will be able to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment. It feels great to be able to offer homes with roofs made of fossil-free steel. Sustainable construction has taken on a whole new dimension,” says Torbjörn Henrysson, Business Director at Plannja Steinwalls AB, which specializes in sheet metal products for the single-family house industry.

Water as a by-product

The fossil-free steel production process emits water instead of CO₂ as a residual product. In addition, emissions from the manufacturing phase will be minimized through the use of green energy and the choice of material and logistics alternatives with the minimum possible environmental impact.

Plannja is part of Ruukki Construction and in line with the joint sustainability pledge, which was made back in 2021, the businesses have committed to be the first companies in the world to offer building products made from fossil-free steel. Both Ruukki and Plannja have systematically reduced emissions from their operations by more than 50% since 2019 with the goal of achieving an overall reduction in emissions of 70% by 2030. The multi-year investment program aims to minimize the environmental impact of operations and product ranges in the future.

In November 2023, Ruukki Construction announced the first fossil-free pilot projects in Sweden and Finland, and next year, Ruukki and Plannja will start more pilot projects with fossil-free steel products in selected European countries.

Facts: Three reasons why fossil-free steel is a truly “green” alternative

• The process does not involve any fossil fuels and produces no CO₂ emissions.
• The only by-product is water.
• If the hydrogen used in the reduction process has been produced with fossil-free electricity, all CO2 emissions from the production have been eliminated, making the steel truly fossil-free.