SUSTAINABILITY MEGATRENDS ARE SHAPING OUR WORLD. IN PARTICULAR CLIMATE CHANGE, SCARCITY OF RESOURCES, AND DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFTS. THIS IS FEEDING INTO SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS WHICH IN TURN DRIVES POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND LEGISLATION.
So what does this mean for the construction industry? The construction industry is responsible for a significant amount of resource use (both materials and energy consumption) and waste. The pressure to become more sustainable is considerable and industries are working hard to reduce resource use, decrease waste and become more sustainable. Understanding how building materials perform in use, and what happens to them at end-of-life, has an important role to play in achieving a more sustainable construction environment. Steel, as a building material, has many attributes that are very well suited to achieving this ambition and here are just some of the reasons why:
1. Steel can reduce resource use for a given building design
Improvements in the understanding of the use of steel, combined with improvements in steel processing (including micro casting - producing just 20 kilograms of steel) has meant the ability to efficiently develop higher strength and higher performing steels. The development of higher strength steels means that we can build with less steel. Less steel means lower upfront carbon, but not just from the steel itself, also from reductions in the transport weight, construction and foundation weight. In general, the use of a steel framed building utilises less space and less foundations when compared with an equivalent concrete design, so any further reductions from weight savings is a win-win.
2. Steel is extremely durable and long lasting - maximising its use as a resource
An important but often underestimated attribute - but building with a material that requires little or zero maintenance, and can meet design life requirements into three figures, equates to a resource that is being maximised. If we take weathering steel for example, we have a material that can last 120 years or more with little or no maintenance. Combining this capability with the adaptability of steel and you have a material that will last a very long time and then, at the end of its life, can be put to another use.
3. Steel is well suited to the circular economy
The durability and adaptability of steel makes it very well suited to the circular economy. If we define the circular economy as 'reducing resource use, and reducing the waste associated with that resource use' then we have already demonstrated above that we can do more, with less steel, than ever before, but this durability and adaptability also allows us to:
a. Modify and adapt existing buildings, to easily allow business expansion or change of building use.
b. Reuse steel at the end of its use; the inherent ability of steel to be demounted, though simple product design, makes the deconstruction and reuse of steel in the built environment a potentially extremely efficient process. The construction industry is not yet ready, at scale, for this, but with co-ordination on standardisation of products, consistent and fully adopted data protocols and construction techniques, then steel reuse can become a key driver of improved built environment sustainable performance.
c. Steel can be deconstructed and 'remanufactured' for another purpose, unleashing a further life for the resource.
d. Finally, when steel cannot be reused or repurposed then it has a real trick up its sleeve - it can be (and is 99% likely to be) recycled to become another steel product. A key to driving the circular economy is to retain value in resources for as long as possible. The steel scrap market is one such mechanism for steel that almost guarantees that if steel can be recycled it will be.
4. Steel manufacturing is continuously improving
The energy used, and the CO2 intensity in the manufacture of steel in Europe, has reduced on average around 1%1 per year from the turn of this century, and the energy required to produce a tonne of steel in the UK has reduced by some 40%2 since the mid-1970's. And we are now approaching theoretical limits on steel making meaning that breakthrough technology will be essential to maintain these trends, which leads us to…
5. Steel is well suited to break through sustainable technologies
Tata Steel are the owners of HIsarna, a breakthough technology which has the capability to lower future steel making CO2 intensity by up to 50%. Combined with carbon capture and storage this may increase to 80%. Work to further develop HIsarna continues and this work is in the context of Tata Steel's confirmed ambition to be carbon neutral steel making in 2050.
6. Steel in construction minimises waste
Whilst steel manufacturing is extremely circular, with many of the by-products of the steel making process being utilised in other processes or industries - steel as a construction material also contributes to reduced waste. Steel is extremely well suited to offsite construction and modular methods of construction by its very nature. Both its formability and processing characteristics mean that what waste is generated becomes the input to further steel making (recycling). Such characteristics contribute to reduced construction time and increased construction efficiency.
7. Steel's contribution to the built environment
Probably the most important of our magnificent seven reasons; it is not only steel as a material that can contribute to a more sustainable construction industry but the products that are produced from steel, during their lifetime, can make our building assets more efficient, more effective (as ideal living and working spaces) and more sustainable. From the insulated and airtight panels that Tata Steel produce (reducing energy consumption), to the integrated renewable energy generators that will deliver energy positive buildings, steel has an important role to play in our ambition for a more sustainable built environment.
From these seven reasons, it is clear to see that steel has an important role, and capability, in delivering a circular economic and sustainable future for our built environment.
At Tata Steel, we believe that only by taking a complete lifecycle perspective can we both optimise the use of the world's limited resources and reduce waste. Circular economic thinking is a key part of that solution, from initial product design to end-of-life and beyond, focusing on just the impact of a material at its conception fails to take the impact of a material on the future and the unintended consequences that this brings with it.
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