Sustainability Community

Good morning Community! 

Today I'd like to share 2 articles with you, one from Metro (photo attached), the other one is from BBC, both talk about social implications when implementing change.

British Steel has confirmed it plans to close down its blast furnaces in Scunthrope and replace it with two electric arc furnaces, on ein Scunthorpe and the other at Teeside. The company said its gbp 1.25 bn proposal would make British Steel "a clean, green and sustainable business". The business is owned by China's Jingye Group. The new assets could be in operation by late 2025. 2,000 jobs are at risk. Other rivals will follow this path too with Tata Steel announcing it would also close its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot and replace them with electric arc furnaces, with an expected loss of up to 3,000 jobs. It will receive gbp 500 mln of government support. Production of steel is responsible for around 7% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Electric blast furnaces mean less emissions.

I wonder what lessions can we draw from history when similar industrial transformations happened (steam engines dying, other indutries shut downs)? Any thoughts?

I think the digital transformation that involved significant changes in employee contracts and terms is a great case study of a failure to anticipate social issues that resulted in significant business disruption and a collapse in share price.