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Sustainability

Sustainability at GrafTech

SustainabilityMessage from the CEO

Dear Valued Stakeholders,

We remain committed to advancing our sustainability and governance initiatives, which remain central to our overall business strategy. We are dedicated to reducing our environmental footprint and improving our energy efficiency and, in 2024, we continued investing in energy-saving technologies. We understand that our success is intrinsically linked to the well-being of the communities in which we operate and, as such, we continued to expand our social responsibility programs, emphasizing education, workforce development, and community engagement. As a leading provider of a product that is mission critical to our customers, GrafTech is proud of our ongoing contributions towards the sustainability of steel.

Timothy K. Flanagan, Chief Executive Officer and President

GrafTech is proud to be a leader in the manufacturing of high-quality graphite electrodes, operating three of the most efficient and highest capacity graphite electrode manufacturing facilities in the world. The recent full re-start of our facility in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, further enhances our capabilities to support our customers’ decarbonization efforts. Our products are essential to the production of electric arc furnace (“EAF”) steel, which is the fastest-growing segment of the global steel market and, importantly, more environmentally friendly than blast furnace steelmaking. In fact, EAF steelmaking generates significantly less carbon dioxide emissions compared to a blast furnace facility. It also directly supports the circular economy, as EAF steelmaking recycles scrap-based raw materials into new steel that is infinitely recyclable. Combined with our strides towards heat recovery and our ongoing transition to green electricity at our facilities, we are making significant progress—directly and indirectly—towards the decarbonization of steel.

GrafTech’s success is only possible through the hard work of our global team and their commitment to upholding our core values of Safety, Environment, and Quality (“SEQ”). Our people have demonstrated this commitment, as well as determination and resilience, as we navigated through what proved to be a challenging year in 2022. In addition to the impacts of geopolitical conflict, high levels of inflation, and ongoing supply chain and economic uncertainty, the unanticipated suspension of our operations in Monterrey, Mexico, in late 2022 significantly affected our business.

 

Despite these challenges, we made important ESG progress in 2022. We made key investments in our heat recovery program, spending more than $13 million in 2022 and 2023. We expanded our safety initiatives, undertook new several community engagement programs, and embarked on new collaborations with universities to expand our R&D capabilities.

We are proud of our progress and of our ongoing contributions towards the sustainability of steel. We continue to identify and pursue opportunities to drive sustainability performance and increase transparency on ESG issues. In May 2023, GrafTech joined the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices. Looking forward, we remain fully committed to advancing our sustainability efforts across our global organization. Ultimately, we believe that this work supports our industry-leading position and competitive advantage, optimally positioning GrafTech for long-term growth and benefits for all stakeholders.

As always, I welcome your questions and comments on our sustainability efforts and look forward to engaging with you on these topics.

Sincerely,
Marcel Kessler,
Chief Executive Officer

Downloads

2024 Sustainability Report
2024 EcoVadis Silver Sustainability Rating
2024 Modern Slavery Report

Sustainability Business Ethics & Corporate Governance

Our success is only possible with the hard work of our global team and their commitment to upholding our core values of Safety, Environment, and Quality (“SEQ”). These values focus our attention on a core mission for GrafTech: providing a safe work environment for all employees, environmental stewardship, and delivering superior product quality. As a company, we are committed to unyielding integrity and to ensuring the success of future generations of employees, customers, stockholders, and communities.

At GrafTech, ethical conduct is a fundamental principle, synonymous with business success and essential for carrying out all business objectives. Our Code of Conduct and Ethics (the “Code”) serves as the foundation for these values and guides our team in making thoughtful and well-informed decisions. The Code applies to employees, directors, and officers of GrafTech, and the Board reviews the Code annually as part of its regular review of our corporate governance practices.

Safety, Environment and Quality

Sustainability Environment

At GrafTech, we understand that graphite electrode manufacturing processes have an impact on the communities in which we operate and their surrounding environment. Simultaneously, we recognize that our operations and the long-term success of our business depends on our ability to reduce our environmental footprint. For these reasons, we have identified energy conservation, increased use of low carbon and renewable energy sources, reduction of greenhouse gas and other air emissions, waste recycling, and water management as key strategies for reducing our environmental impact.

Our Environmental Policy describes how our organization is committed to minimizing our impact on the environment and the activities we pursue to meet that commitment.

Sustainability Products

At GrafTech, we strive to deliver the highest performing electrodes to our customers. The combination of our highly engineered products and technical services can help our customers increase productivity and reduce costs, while simultaneously supporting both our sustainability goals and those of our clients. The electric arc furnace ("EAF") steelmaking method is more environmentally friendly than traditional methods, and as such investing in our products illustrates a commitment to the effort to decarbonize the steel industry. As the market for EAF steel grows, we look to innovate and expand our business, by continuing to deliver the highest performing electrodes manufactured in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Graphite Electrode Products End of Life Considerations: GrafTech International’s graphite electrode products are typically fully consumed in the normal EAF operation, and related industrial equipment, for which they are designed. Under normal operating conditions, no further procedures are required for end of product life considerations. To learn more, please read our Graphite Electrode Products End of Life Statement.

Sustainability Customers

Our Sales, Customer Services Representative (“CSR”), and Customer Technical Service (“CTS”) teams are deeply invested in our customers’ ability to successfully conduct their melting operations using our graphite electrodes. Together, our products and our teams provide excellent technical service, including one-on-one guidance and technical assistance to help our customers increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve safety.

Our Sales, CSR, and CTS teams operate from 14 different countries, ensuring that every GrafTech customer has access to valuable support. We believe this comprehensive network of engineers further enables our ability to deliver superior products and services and sets us apart from our competitors.

Sustainability Community

As a global manufacturer and local employer, we understand the important role we play as corporate citizens. We are committed to acting as responsible stewards in our local communities. Protecting our employees, our local environments, and our neighbors while simultaneously investing in community programs is fundamental to our operations.

Sustainability Workforce

Our employees are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to ensuring their safety and professional growth at GrafTech. Not only is it our responsibility to take care of our employees’ physical wellbeing, but we also work to ensure our employees feel accepted and valued at GrafTech. We care for our workforce by fostering their career development through learning opportunities and skills training.

As GrafTech continues to attract a global and diverse talent base, we seek candidates who share our core values, particularly our commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy work environment. Many of these candidates come from the local communities in which we operate.