Podcast

Announcer: Welcome to CEC Explains — your deep dive into fascinating subjects from the worlds of engineering and the environment, brought to you by Civil & Environmental Consultants. And now, from our CEC studios around the nation, this is CEC Explains.

 

Leah: Thank you everyone for joining us on this podcast. My name is Leah Blinn, and I’m a Vice President with Civil & Environmental Consultants. I’m currently the Corporate Air Practice Lead, and I sit in our Pittsburgh office, which is our headquarters. I’m also the Pittsburgh Air Practice Lead. I’ve been doing air quality consulting for over 20 years now, and I have a chemical engineering degree from Penn State University. 

I have the privilege of having my dear friend, Dave Miracle, here with me on today’s podcast. Dave is the Corporate Manager of Sustainability at Nucor. He and I have met — what? — seven or eight years ago now, and we met through the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Environment Committee. Both Dave and I have been active on that Committee and volunteering for various work groups in that committee. So, Dave, thank you for joining me, and welcome. And really, I just wanted for you to give a brief background on your role with Nucor, as well as how you got to this position.

 

Dave: Surely. Thank you and CEC for having me this morning. Nice to be here. Nice to see you again. Hard to believe it’s been seven years. But yeah, we’ve had some good times hanging out, getting to know each other, and really appreciate all of the hard work that CEC has done for Nucor over the years.

Yeah, so, my background: I’m a civil engineer from the University of Kentucky, and I’ve been in the steel industry now for, hard to believe, it’s been about 23 years, and been with Nucor for two. Currently, I’m the, as you mentioned, the Corporate Manager of Sustainability for Nucor Corporation here in Charlotte, North Carolina – largest steel producer in the country, tip of the spear on sustainability. So, excited to talk with you this morning and share a little bit more about Nucor and what we have going on.

 

Leah: Thanks, Dave, and I know I speak for all of us at CEC. I mean it’s been great working with Nucor throughout the years, really developing a partnership with you and really the whole team there. So, what’s been new with Nucor? I know that 2021 was a great year for you all.

 

Dave: Yeah, it was my first full year with Nucor, and, man, what a great, great year it was. It was incredible — a lot of records. We had an 81% increase in revenue, record set for sales and profitability, record numbers of tons shipped to our customers. But really, most importantly, I want to make sure I highlight it, it was the safest year we ever had, and it was our lowest ever injury and illness rate in the company’s history, and we’re really proud of that. Also, on the flip side, you know, talking on the sustainability piece, we’re proud to announce we had a record for our lowest ever year in greenhouse gas intensity.

As momentum continues to build for companies, all Industries, including ours here at Nucor, we’re really set trying to maintain our industry-leading position when it comes to low greenhouse gases. So, we get questions coming from all directions. We’ve got customers that want cleaner supply chains. We have stockholders, shareholders, that are interested in talking about ESG. We’ve got teammates, and a lot of our talent team here focused on making sure that the new candidates understand our position on sustainability and where we’re going to be. Exciting times here at Nucor for a whole bunch of reasons, and proud to be a part of the sustainability team here.

 

Leah: That’s fantastic, and certainly we’ll talk a little bit later about sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions. But I wanted to know too: What do you think have been some of the greater contributors to your, I guess, financial success over the last year or two?

 

Dave: You know, it really comes down to investments that Nucor has made years ago. I mean, we have really brand-new equipment when you compare us to a lot of our competition, and I just want to take a second to highlight the Nucor culture. You have teammates here that are just driven to make sure we continue to be the best steel company in the country and lots of different ways to be incentivized to do that. But you know we have teammates here that we get to know each other on a very personal level. It’s not just some nine to five job. We spend time with each other away from work, get to know each other’s families, and really really care about one another, and all aligned here in making sure that we stay on top of the steel-making mountain here in this country and really in the world. So, incredible company to be a part of. I’m just kind of learning my way around, just been here a couple of years, but I’ve been overwhelmed by the support that I’ve received personally, my family has received, and just the team here in Charlotte, of course, and all around the country.

 

Leah: Thank you, and that’s probably why CEC and Nucor, I think, have worked so well together too. I think we’re both based on the same culture, the same mission, and the same values. So, that’s great to hear.

I know you’ve been traveling a lot lately, particularly to your customers, and you did mention your customers are asking about your sustainability program. What specifically are you hearing from your customers that’s helping to drive sustainability?

 

Dave: Sure. All of our customers seem to have a different level of expectation when it comes to sustainability. Some are very involved, and some are still trying to figure it out. One of our key initiatives has been to make sure that we are partnering with our customers to try to help them figure it out. When everyone is sitting around their boardrooms trying to figure out what are we going to do to reduce carbon. What steps can we take to try to help resolve or get the world back on course to resolve climate change? We want them to think about Nucor. You know, we want to be at the top of their list.

This week, I had a great time with some of our automotive customers. They certainly — when you hear about sustainability questions, carbon is usually number one on the list, number one, two, and three actually. So, that’s really driving most of our sustainability discussions. There are certainly other aspects. Whether it’s, you know, diversity and inclusion or other corporate governance-related topics, but for the most part, the dialogue is almost always centered around carbon. 

And I’m really, really excited about all the new investments that we’re making, the steel mill that’s going to start up here really late this year in Brandenburg, Kentucky. It’s going to be the most incredible steel mill in the world for manufacturing a plate. And part of the focus of that particular facility is going to be on the offshore wind piece of this. So, we’re going over to Europe in a couple of weeks to meet with the customer that’s really leading the way on offshore wind, and they’re excited about the mill there in Brandenburg and the opportunities that a partnership with Nucor could mean for them to help grow their business.

We, of course, share with all of our customers, when it comes to greenhouse gases, our goals. Just last year, as I mentioned, we had this record greenhouse gas intensity of 0.43 tons of CO2 equivalents per ton of steel produced, and that was down from 0.47 in 2020. At that intensity, our steelmaking operations are less than a quarter of the global steelmaking average. And now, they’re less than a fifth of the global integrated steelmaking average. And that’s just a huge number, and a lot of stakeholders that we’re talking to, whether it’s customers or whether it’s someone in the government, they don’t necessarily realize that steel can be made in two different ways. And they’re a lot of times blown away by the vast difference and how low our greenhouse gas footprint is at Nucor versus a lot of our competition. It’s just proof that Nucor is leading the way on greenhouse gases. And we can do that and also lead the way on profitability. You know, said differently profitability and sustainability can indeed coexist.

You know, Leah, when you look at the Paris Agreement, and its most aggressive benchmark trying to be that below two degrees scenario. Our greenhouse gas intensity today is already roughly half of that benchmark where the whole industry needs to be in 2030. So, said differently, if we did nothing differently for the next 20 years, we’re still on pace to hit that number. So, put it a different way, our performance — Nucor’s performance today is just what most of our global competition they’re aspiring to achieve in 2040 and 2050, and beyond.

 

Leah: That’s really impressive, Dave. I can imagine it must be very difficult to gather information to be able to support your carbon intensity. In fact, I just gave a presentation this week at AISTech. It was based here in Pittsburgh, and we heard a lot about sustainability, a lot about greenhouse gas emissions reductions at that conference, a lot of new technology that’s out there. But before we dig into some of the technology that you’re looking at, what are the challenges? What challenges have you seen in just trying to gather the data from all of your various plants in order to calculate you know your carbon intensity and your carbon footprint? You know, you guys have a lot of plants. So, how have you been able to do that? Relatively easily or not? I don’t know. What challenges have you had?

 

Dave: You know, it’s a great question. This company is a monster. We have 25 steel mills. We’re in the process of commissioning, building, or designing — what? — five more. And then on top of that, we of course have our raw material segment, which consists of a couple of DRI plants and dozens of scrap yards all over North America. And then our products divisions you’re talking well over 300 different locations. So, it’s a challenge to get the data, and even though we know steel mills and DRIs certainly make up the lion’s share of our greenhouse gases, the inventory process is — it can be tough, and I can’t say enough about our teammates who are really able to rally and turn the information around very, very quickly this year.

We pretty much had our inventory put together by call it mid-February, and it’s going to be a challenge for a lot of publicly traded companies. As the SEC rulemaking, of course, on greenhouse gas inventory, that’s coming down the pike. You’re going to have to have your inventory done and verified by a third party before you publish your 10-K. So, it’s going to be about speed, and the team really embraced that challenge. And we were able to turn around the data very, very quickly compared to years passed and actually take our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions through a third-party verification process for our steel mills.

 

Leah: So, Dave, certainly Nucor has made great strides in greenhouse gas emissions reductions. What is the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

 

Dave: Sure. It has been established that climate change is being driven by a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So, the general notion is that we need as a globe, as a world, to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being created in order to make sure that the globe is not prematurely warm up. So, when you hear someone talk about a two-degree scenario or a one-and-a-half-degree scenario, that’s really coming up with where carbon emissions ultimately need to be in order to prevent the Earth from warming up, prematurely that amount.

And, when you think about steel and its overall carbon impact, the general number you’ll see out there is steel represents call it seven or eight percent of the greenhouse gas emissions across the world. But it’s important to put that number into context. For instance, in China, steelmaking is about 15 percent of the overall greenhouse gases in that particular country. But here in the United States, it’s closer to one, and one of the big reasons for the difference is EF production here in the United States versus integrated steel producers. Whereas most of the steel production in China and Asia is still using the blast furnaces and the coke plants. So, it’s certainly a global problem that deserves a global solution, and it’s nothing that can be fixed here in a vacuum in the United States. Everyone is going to have to be on board.

 

Leah: Thanks, and I know many companies are establishing their carbon footprint, focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, looking at Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Certainly, Scope 1 are relating to emissions that are directly emitted from their facility. Scope 2 emissions are coming directly from electricity that is purchased. We’ve done a lot of Scope 1 and 2 emission calculations. Companies are now looking at Scope 3, and I was hoping that you could help me define — I know it’s a broad definition for Scope 3 — but maybe touch on the steel industry, and what scope three may mean to the steel industry.

 

Dave: Yeah, I get that question all the time. You know, what are the differences between these different Scopes, and kind of the simple way I explain it is Scope 1 are direct emissions coming out your stack, right? Scope 2 are emissions associated with purchased electricity or purchased steam, and then Scope 3 is really everything else. So, upstream emissions associated with the raw materials that are being created to support your business or anything downstream, you know, emissions associated with whatever widget you’re making. And so for instance, an automobile, the emissions coming from a tailpipe would really be a Scope 3 emission for an automobile provider. So hopefully, that provides a little more clarity.

 

Leah: Yes, thank you. What was the first year that you pulled together your Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions? What was your baseline year?

 

Dave: Nucor has really led the pack. I think we may be the only steel company that reports Scope 3 emissions. I know we were reporting data as far back as 2015, but I think the first year we were disclosing at least Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions was probably back in the 2012 sort of time period, so call it a decade ago. And as these things go and as CEC well knows, you have a lot of customers that you helped with their greenhouse gas reporting, it’s not a perfect process, and all you’re trying to do every year is just get a little bit better, get a little more accurate, and make sure you have all the sorting of the supporting documentation to back up your disclosures.

 

Leah: Definitely. I mean we’re working right now with a number of customers on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, looking at baseline year 2020. So, for you to have at least five years’ worth of data already is really impressive. What has Nucor done to achieve these amazing greenhouse gas reductions? What’s been some of your biggest needle movers on the greenhouse gas emissions front?

 

Dave: You know, you think about it, I mean Nucor hasn’t really been in this steelmaking business all that long, about a half-century or so. And when you look back to how it all started, Ken Iverson, our CEO back in the late ’60s, we had a Vulcraft Division down in Darlington or Florence, South Carolina and making joist, and he got tired of paying high prices for steel substrate. So, he heard about this electric arc furnace technology and really wasn’t very widely used anywhere, certainly not the United States, and said, “You know what? Let’s try it.” So, you know, Nucor builds in the AF and Darlington, South Carolina. and before you know it, there’s one in Nebraska, and then here we are, whatever, 50, 60 years later, and we’ve got 25 steel mills and buying five more.

So, it’s really about investing in electric arc furnaces, which just have an inherent advantage over blast furnaces and BOFs and coke plants when it comes to greenhouse gases. And of course, electricity is a, as is natural gas, a huge part of the cost component. So, our team is always looking for ways to be more energy-efficient, whether it’s changing a slag foaming practice or the time period where you may not elect even buy through high periods of electricity costs. We’re a very smart team in terms of how we’re utilizing energy, and that’s why our energy intensity is also maybe a quarter of the global average. So it’s been — that has been our inherent advantage. And that’s why we have been the tip of the spear, and the team’s very excited about trying to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases and keep things rolling in terms of reducing our energy intensity.

 

Leah: Yeah, let’s talk about energy for a moment. You certainly touched on offshore wind and your plans to use that at one of your new plants. What about hydrogen? I’ve heard a lot about hydrogen lately. What are your thoughts on using hydrogen in the future or, maybe, even at some of your existing facilities?

 

Dave: Yeah, boy, there’s certainly a buzz on hydrogen. Seems like you get questions on that, or I get questions on that several times a week, and the simple fact is that EAF steel production, that’s the technology that exists today, and it can help us meet our climate — our global climate targets. Many folks are talking about moving away from traditional blast furnace technology to new and so-called transformative technologies like hydrogen. Why those technological advances will eventually be required to reduce the steel sector’s carbon footprint to net zero. Even in the best case, those breakthroughs, they’re years away, if not decades away, from being scalable and commercially viable. So, we can’t ignore current proven and available technology that we absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt is going to address greenhouse gas emissions right now, not decades from now.

Now, it’s clear that the greater global adoption of EAF technology alone makes a huge impact on the climate change landscape. It’s also going to create new and different challenges for our industry. Scrap inputs for steel production globally have remained around call it 35 percent since 2013, and the International Energy Agency recommends that the global market share of scrap inputs needs to reach over 40 percent by 2030 in order to meet these goals of the Paris Agreement. Certainly, proud to say that our scrap input is another record high of about 75.4 percent of the steel that we produced last year.

 

Leah: Wow, that’s a pretty high number, and I think with hydrogen too, the problem right now is a lot with supply. It’s certainly going to be part of our future and part of the energy conversation, but I think of the difficulty. I know we do a lot of work in the natural gas industry as well and just the difficulty with getting some pipelines for natural gas, so I can only imagine how we’re going to one – create the hydrogen, as well as put the supply chain together.

 

Dave: Yeah, I think maybe less than a percent of the hydrogen created today is green hydrogen, and that’s what matters, if the hydrogen’ is being created with the consumption of natural gas or coal, you’re not really doing anything to reduce the carbon. So, it’s got to be green hydrogen. There’s just not much of it right now in this country.

 

Leah: What about DRI? Does Nucor make DRI?

 

Dave: We do. We have two large facilities that make DRI, one in Louisiana and one in Trinidad. And we’re the only North American steel company through our vertical integrated strategies that can produce an excess of four million tons of DRI. No one else can do that. And because DRI production uses natural gas as a reductant that process is about half as carbon-intensive as a coal-based alternative, like pig iron. And at Nucor, we don’t believe in sitting back and resting on past performance. So, we are actually looking at potential opportunities to reduce or even utilize some carbon capture at least one of our DRI facilities. So, it’s an exciting time.

 

Leah: I know we’ve talked about your greenhouse gas emissions reductions. You talked about Scope 1, 2, and 3. I certainly understand the challenges especially when we’re talking about Scope 3 emissions. It seems to be never-ending and undefinable. So, what has Nucor done to define their Scope 3 emissions? What all are you including in that Scope 3?

 

Dave: Yeah. As I mentioned, we’re the only steel company, I believe, in the country that discloses our Scope 3, and we define that as what our most significant Scope 3 emissions are, so anything associated with our raw materials or transportation that’s in that number. Looking at teammates’ commute to work, that’s not included. It’s just chasing those smaller numbers is just not really worth our time because it just doesn’t amount to much in terms of our overall inventory.

You know, a lot of our competition ignores it. You look at a lot of integrated steel mills that like, for instance, purchase coke. That would be a Scope 3 emission for them. And you don’t see that included in their numbers Another example, if blast furnace gas, for instance, is going to a power facility to run a steam turbine. All of a sudden those aren’t Scope 1 emissions for the facility anymore; they’re Scope 3. So, you just can’t really ignore them. In order to get the full picture in terms of greenhouse gas impact, you have to be looking at least at the material Scope 3 emissions, and Nucor is an open book in that regard, and we have been for quite some time. 

 

Leah: So, you know, focusing on Scope 3, what are your targets, or what are you intending to do to further reduce particularly your Scope 3 emissions?

 

Dave: Sure. We haven’t set a hard target for Scope 3 emissions just because they are difficult to completely define. But we have a lot of projects right now underway to look at ways to reduce Scope 3. I mentioned carbon sequestration associated with DRI. And even though DRI is a Scope 1 for Nucor as an enterprise, it’s a Scope 3 for a steel mill. So, it gets a little bit kind of nerdy walking through the greenhouse gas accounting practices.

 

Leah: That can be a whole other podcast, okay?

 

Dave: And you’ve got pig iron, of course. There are ways to create pig iron with sustainably sourced charcoal, so that could be a big needle mover for Scope 3 emissions. There are other ways that I can’t get into exactly at this moment that we’re looking at creating iron that will potentially be game changers in terms of reducing Scope 3 emissions as well. It’s a big part of our endeavor here because we have a lot of customers that, as you imagine, want to understand what our Scope 3 emissions are as well, and some of them are just as focused on Scope 3 as they are on Scope 1 and 2. Keep in mind for our customers, all of our emissions are Scope 3 emissions to them. So, it’s a big piece of the puzzle here at Nucor.

 

Leah: Yeah, that’s true. And again, there’s just a ton of technology out there, and I think over the next few years, it’s going to be just amazing to see all of the development, especially related to greenhouse gas emissions. But it seems like a lot talking about Scope 2, I guess, energy, right? Energy is everything, and we continue to use more and more energy just in our personal lives, in industries. We’ve talked about your offshore wind, talked a little bit about hydrogen, but I saw something recently that Nucor is investing in nuclear energy. What’s going on there?

 

Dave: Yeah, pretty excited. We invested with NuScale, and nuclear energy has — it’s kind of got mixed results when you talk to people about how they feel about it, but we’re a strong supporter of nuclear energy. We think it has to be a piece of the solution to climate because you can — man, you can just create a lot of electrons without any carbon and a really small footprint geographically compared to a solar farm, for instance, or a wind farm. So, we made an investment in NuScale and really hope to see something on the market really even perhaps by 2030 where we’ve got maybe one or if not two of our steel mills that are powered solely by these module nuclear reactors. So, it’s an exciting piece of it. We’re invested in that heavily.

And if you want to talk about electricity, you also need to mention virtual power purchase agreements. We’ve entered into three of those. Currently, one of them is online and generating renewable electricity, and how those work of course is it’s usually a 10 to 12-year commitment to buy renewable electricity at a negotiated price. So, then the solar, the wind farm developer then has that credit really from Nucor to be able to go to the bank and get the money they need to to build their wind farm or build their solar farm. And as a result, we get all those renewable energy credits, and we can retire those on behalf of customers that want to have steel made with 100% renewable electricity. So, that’s been an exciting piece of the puzzle for us as well.

 

Leah: And I definitely think there needs to be a balanced energy portfolio, and I love that Nucor has invested in the nuclear small modular reactors. As you may know, my husband spent a number of years working with a nuclear company. So, I certainly got educated, especially on the small modular reactors or microreactors as well, and I agree that nuclear needs to be a part of the conversation as well.

 

Dave: What do you think, Leah, about sort of the public perception of nuclear energy? How difficult of a hurdle do you think that’s going to be to overcome — for the industry to overcome?

 

Leah: I still think it’s going to be a difficult hurdle. Obviously, Fukushima is not far from our minds still. Granted, that was a special case. And, you know, even just Hollywood, and was it Netflix or HBO that the Chernobyl miniseries was on? That was pretty interesting. I mean, honestly, really with any sort of energy, you need to do it safely. So, I think we can continue to educate the public. I think it has to come from the top-down as well. I think there needs to be some investment in this technology and in PR to promote nuclear energy. Certainly, our government is looking into these small modular reactors and microreactors. So, I think if we see some of those installations and see those succeed that it will become you know more commonplace for the industry than to have the same technology. So, I think — I don’t know. Part of me thinks that it kind of needs to start from the top.

 

Dave: Yeah, you know, we’ve been exploring a bunch of technologies and feasibilities, whether it’s nuclear or other, and one of the things we’ve done – we formed a sustainable technology team because there are technologies coming out of the woodwork. And there’s just so many to look at, and how many potentially bear fruit? So really, this group was established to just explore one the technical feasibility, and number two does it make sense economically? And we’ve evaluated dozens of projects, which are anywhere from really the beginning stages of development to others that are further along. And now, I can just tell you, I’ve been really impressed by the amount of innovation that’s already underway, both here at Nucor and around the world.

 

Leah: I mean, especially even if you’re talking about hydrogen, right? There are some bad connotations associated with hydrogen, and like I said, just trying to get that supply and do it safely. So, I think there are going to be a number of hurdles to overcome for a number of different energy sources. So, let’s get back to steel. Does Nucor have any low-carbon steel to offer to their clients?

 

Dave: Yeah, we recently launched a new product family known as Econiq. It’s the world’s first-ever net-zero carbon steel offered at scale; it’s not a single product. It’s a net-zero certification, which means we can apply that to any product that’s made with Nucor steel. And our net-zero product means that all greenhouse gases emissions associated with the production that steel, or balanced with some sort of an equivalent amount, being removed.

One way we do it, the VPPAs that I mentioned, those power purchase agreements, we can use those RECs to essentially offset the Scope 2 emissions. And then the second way, with regard where Scope 1 emissions we’re buying these really high-quality carbon offsets, but that’s kind of a bridging mechanism. As I mentioned before, we’re maybe 75 percent better than the rest of the world in terms of our greenhouse gas intensity. So, about half of what’s left over we’re able to deal with these power purchase agreement RECs, and then that leaves you with almost maybe a little over 10 percent of the global average. And it’s just that little piece we’re having to take care of with offsets until we’re able to come up with some ways to reduce that carbon ourselves here internally at Nucor.

And this Econiq product is not only going to help us lower our carbon footprint, but they’ll also help our customers achieve their ESG goals because they know they’re purchasing the lowest greenhouse gas emissions steel product available, and one of the customers got to mention is General Motors. They received our first coil of Econiq earlier this year in January. That partnership we have with GM — we just recently received this Overdrive Award from them which is given to suppliers who display outstanding achievement and sustainability.

 

Leah: Congratulations.

 

Dave: Yeah. Total enterprise cost, profitability, safety, launch excellence, and innovation. Those are the criteria for Overdrive. So, excited to get that and work with GM to be a huge part of their plans to reduce carbon within their supply chain.

 

Leah: Yeah, I’m sure GM appreciates that with their aggressive goals to reduce carbon emissions as well. So, I guess it is pretty critical to be able to provide this low-carbon steel. In your opinion, why is it so critical? Why is it so important to be able to provide low-carbon steel to your customers?

 

Dave: Yeah, just sticking with the automotive piece, I was in Detroit yesterday meeting with several customers, and yet at the end of the day, we’re expecting 145 million electric vehicles to be on the road by 2030. That’s a huge number, considering just a couple of years ago, we were at four million. So, you figure it’s a million or one ton of steel to make one EV. So if you get 145 million EVs, you got 145 million tons of steel that’s going to be required to meet that demand. And it’s pretty easy math. For the OEMs and different automotive customers to figure out that they can reduce the greenhouse gases in that supply chain if they’re buying steel from Nucor. And that’s a big part of the story that we tell, and they’re very interested to hear more about that and be a part of that, not, obviously not just GM.

So, now with the new steel mill that we just announced in West Virginia that CEC has been helping us with on the permitting front, as well as on the construction front. Doing a great job with that, by the way. A big piece of that is to take more market share in the automotive sector. So, the sustainability story, it’s a huge commercial benefit and selling point for Nucor, and we’ve been highlighting that with all of our customers over the last couple of years.

 

Leah: Yeah, I think, like you noted with the electric vehicles, that’s really helped to increase a lot of steel companies are looking to expand and build new plants basically due to the electric vehicles, as well as other industries and infrastructure. Have you guys thought about — have installed any EV Chargers in your corporate office or elsewhere?

 

Dave: We are actually planning to do that. We have a Solar Solutions team here at Nucor. One of our big products right now is something called Power Shingle, and it is a structure that is waterproof. So, it serves as a protection for the cars that park underneath it, but it’s all solar panels on top and because it’s not a building, it is just a structure, the entire thing gets the tax credit. So, we’re actually looking at putting some solar stations right here in Charlotte and have explored that with many of our customers.

With all the capital we’re putting in, and we’re talking 12 billion in CapEx over the last decade. 5.5 billion more just announced, and you know, the plate mill I talked about earlier in Brandenburg, tube mill and Kentucky, third-generation high strength steel facility Galv Line down in Arkansas, along with the coal mills – we’ll support that. We’ve got a new micro mill just announced here in North Carolina to go along with our micro mills in Florida and in Missouri. And then, of course, Nucor steel — West Virginia through nearly a $3 billion investment. They’re not far from Pittsburgh. So, lots going on, and we’ll have, I’m sure, places to plug-in EVs at all of our new facilities because we, like you, have lots of teammates that are interested in it as well. And with all the new EVs going on the road, you’re just going to have to have that. So, exciting times all the way around for Nucor and our sustainability approach here, and obviously I really appreciate, as usual, spending time with you, Leah, and you having us here today It’s been great.

 

Leah: Thank you so much, Dave. I’m so glad that you’re able to participate on this podcast. It’s been fantastic learning more about your greenhouse gas emissions reductions, what Nucor has done and is looking to do as well. And again, just been great being a partner with Nucor to help achieve these goals. So, thank you very much for joining us today.

 

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