Scaling Green Iron Responsibly Starts with Water

Green iron is moving from concept to capital deployment. As projects advance toward final investment decisions, the industry is confronting a reality that other industries have learned the hard way: that environmental credibility is not defined by carbon emissions alone. Sustainability requires that the environmental, social and governance consequences of green iron production are thoroughly evaluated, and that the development opportunities and impacts fully considered. Water is emerging as a decisive test of whether green iron can scale with public trust, investor confidence, and long-term resilience. 

A new GH2 guidance note on integrated water resource management (IWRM) makes a simple argument: water stewardship is not a constraint on green iron. It is a prerequisite for doing it right.  

A once-in-a-generation reset 

Green iron offers a rare opportunity to redesign an industrial value chain from the ground up. By combining renewable electricity and green hydrogen, it can eliminate a major share of emissions from one of the world’s most carbon-intensive sectors. Investors and customers are not just asking whether iron is low-carbon. They are also asking whether it is genuinely sustainable. That includes how projects interact with water systems, ecosystems, and communities. 

Conventional iron ore mining and steelmaking provide a cautionary history. Competition with local water users, contamination incidents, and tailings failures have created severe environmental and social harm in some regions, undermining trust in industry and regulators alike. Green iron has the chance to avoid repeating those mistakes — but only if water is treated as a strategic issue from the outset. 

The water footprint is modest — the context is not 

In absolute terms, green iron is not a water-intensive industry compared to agriculture or many forms of heavy manufacturing. The guidance note estimates an indicative range of roughly 1.0–3.5 m³ of water per tonne of iron, depending on ore type, recycling rates, and hydrogen pathways. Electrolysis itself adds about 0.5–0.6 m³ per tonne of iron. 

The problem is not just volume. It is geography. Many of the world’s best solar and wind resources — and some of the largest iron ore deposits — are located in water-stressed regions. In these contexts, even relatively small additionalwithdrawals can have outsized impacts. Timing, water quality, cumulative effects, and climate variability all matter. A project that looks efficient on a spreadsheet can still create local scarcity or ecosystem stress if it is poorly integrated into basin-level planning. 

The paper frames water through the lens of integrated water resource management (IWRM). IWRM recognises that industrial projects operate within shared hydrological systems. Responsible development requires understanding basin dynamics, environmental flows, competing users, and long-term climate risks — not just site-level efficiency. 

The guidance note reviews four established international frameworks that already embed key elements of integrated water stewardship: the International Hydropower Association’s Hydropower Sustainability Standard, the ResponsibleSteel International Production Standard, ICMM’s Water Stewardship Maturity Framework and GH2’s own Green Hydrogen Standard 

Despite different sectoral origins, these frameworks converge on shared principles: basin-scale assessment, stakeholder engagement, impact mitigation, adaptive management, and transparency. None alone fully solves the integrated challenge of green iron across mining, hydrogen, and ironmaking. But together they provide a practical toolkit and a growing international consensus on what responsible water management entails. 

This is important for policymakers and financiers. Green iron is not starting from scratch. It can build on tested governance models rather than inventing new ones in isolation. 

From risk management to competitive advantage 

As green iron projects mature, water is becoming a proxy for overall project quality. Developers that can demonstrate credible basin-level planning, stakeholder engagement, and transparent reporting are more likely to secure permits, financing, and long-term offtake agreements. In other words, water stewardship is moving from a compliance exercise to a competitive differentiator. 

The central message is straightforward. Green iron will only achieve its transformative potential if it scales with social licence and environmental credibility. Handled poorly, water becomes a bottleneck that slows investment and erodes public trust. Handled well, it becomes proof that deep industrial decarbonisation can align with ecosystem protection and community wellbeing.