KUALA LUMPUR: Eastern Steel Sdn Bhd takes a step forward in industrial accountability with the launch of Malaysia’s first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for a crude steel product.
An EPD is a document that details the environmental impact of a product or material throughout its life cycle.
“By quantifying impacts like carbon footprint, water consumption and air pollution based on a verified scientific approach, it provides the transparency essential to combat green-washing and meet the stringent requirements of green building certifications and global procurement policies,” said Eastern Steel Sdn Bhd executive director Datuk Tee Choon Hock.
He added the initiative was managed by E-C Digital Technology Co Ltd, a provider of industrial carbon quantification solutions from China, which recently started a subsidiary in Malaysia.
The EPD initiative addresses the growing need for Malaysian manufacturers to meet stringent international standards, and supply chain requirements for verifiable certifications based on quantifying carbon emissions.
An EPD acts as an “environmental nutrition label,” presenting complex Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results in a standardised format, added Tee, at the Malaysian Industrial Manufacturing Transformation event, hosted by the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturing (FMM) yesterday.
The move was lauded by key government and industry leaders as a critical step forward for Malaysian manufacturing, said Tee.
“There is the need for this new standard of credibility, highlighting that in today’s global economy, manufacturers must be able to prove their environmental claims.
“Self-declarations are no longer sufficient, and this EPD, built on a foundation of scientific LCA, demonstrates the power of verifiable data,” he added.
For Eastern Steel, it had invested about RM700mil to reduce its carbon footprint.
The company has reached an impressive 93% self-sufficiency in internal energy consumption by utilising renewable energy sources, resulting in a reduction of 326,056 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
“A total of 55,000 tonnes was reduced by exporting 29.9MW of excess renewable electricity to a single buyer under the New Enhanced Dispatch Arrangement (NEDA) framework,” Tee said.
In the Malaysian electricity supply sector, a single buyer within the NEDA framework, acts as a central purchasing entity for electricity, primarily procuring power from independent power producers (IPPs) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd
generation.
By adopting international best practices LCA and third-party verification, Eastern Steel is not only aligning with national climate goals but is also creating a transparent model of governance for others to follow.
This represents exactly the kind of credible, data-driven action required to support Malaysia’s environmental commitments, Tee added.
