CSN Innovation

With four pillars of action focused on solving the CSN Group’s challenges, CSN Inova has complementary tools for implementing innovation strategies with impact in the short, medium and long term. Aiming to decarbonize CSN’s production processes and generate more efficiency in our operations, CSN Inova prioritizes development projects, partnerships and investments in industry 4.0 technologies and solutions, new production routes, digital transformation, data science, new materials and circular economy. 

CSN Inova Open conducts a systemic and collaborative innovation process, aimed at solving strategic challenges that represent a high operational, socio-environmental and financial impact for the Company. The innovation management methodology considers the elements of open innovation and is based on an in-depth diagnosis, which involves mapping processes in different segments, areas and operations of the Company, including analyzing pain points and related indicators. Based on these diagnoses, pilot projects are built and executed to test technologies and solutions that meet the mapped challenges. After evaluating these pilots using measurable indicators, the initiatives are scaled in an organized manner within the CSN Group’s businesses. 

CSN Inova Ventures is the corporate venture capital vehicle responsible for bringing the Group closer to startups and solutions in Brazil and abroad. The objective is to capture the best investment opportunities in disruptive technologies with high growth potential and that allow the transition of traditional industries to a smarter, connected and sustainable future.

CSN Inova Ventures’ thesis focuses on companies in the Seed, Series A and Series B stages, whose solution is aligned to one of the investment verticals, also having part of their capital committed to adjacent opportunities.

Also in 2021, supported by extensive research into governance models in sustainability and innovation carried out by CSN Inova Bridge, the ESG Committee was created as an advisory body for the Board of Directors at CSN. Formatted as an agile socio-environmental innovation laboratory model to manage our main opportunities for material themes mapped by the CSN Group, CSN Inova Bridge focuses on: (i) Climate & Air Change; (ii) People; (iii) Water & Effluents; (iv) Circular Economy; (v) Occupational Health & Safety; (vi) Value Chain, Governance & Compliance; (vii) Territories; and (viii) Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services. With 53 ESG Ambassadors, represented by employees from different areas of the CSN Group. 

Finally, the year 2021 was also marked by the creation of CSN Inova Tech, an area that leads the development of new products and technological routes for CSN, through trend radars, relationships with Research Centers and collaboration to advance the Journey of Decarbonization.

Working together with the Climate Change Group (‘GMC’), a multidisciplinary team linked to the ESG Committee, the area has been mapping strategic partners as relevant players in the sector, as well as cutting-edge universities and technology centers with the aim of establishing long-term relationships for the development of technological solutions associated with the group’s decarbonization.

In 2023, there were significant advances in projects for the use of green hydrogen in the Steel Industry, development of new technological routes for the processing of steel slag, evaluation of technologies to produce cold agglomerated pellets and briquettes, that is, without the consumption of fuels fossils and mapping carbon capture technologies. Another highlight of the year was the creation of the Green Hydrogen Hub, which brings together a team of experts to develop projects related to the generation and application of green hydrogen in the CSN group’s industrial processes. Furthermore, the Hub faces significant challenges, from the verticalization of industrial gases, such as H2, O2 and N2, to the research and development of renewable fuels of the future.

For challenges in which technologies are at lower maturity levels and require R&D, CSN Inova Tech brings businesses closer to universities and research centers in Brazil and abroad, encouraging the creation of projects for technology development.