A study on sustainability & environment factors

A better environment begins with steel

Shortage of raw materials and energy, global warming, pollution of air, water and soil – our planet is under pressure. Much of that environmental pollution is linked to the construction and use of buildings. Opting for steel leads to a lower environmental impact. Buildings with a steel erection offer the prospect of important environmental savings at all phases of their lives: from the production of components to disassembling or reuse.

Steel is industrially manufactured under controlled conditions. There is little or no manufacturing waste. By-products such as blast furnace slag cement and gas can be used again. Non-stop innovation in production techniques and procedures has provided an enduring reduction in energy used and emissions. The growing use of used steel in the manufacture of new steel creates less and less need for the raw materials iron ore and coal. Presently over 80% of all steel beams are made from scrap.

You don’t consume steel, you just ‘borrow’ it from nature

It is definite to make all standard steel grades from scrap steel. The new steel preserves its properties and rests suitable for high-performance applications. In the case of galvanized steel, the zinc is first detached from the steel and then can be utilized to make new zinc.

Building with steel includes low use of raw materials. For each important member, no more material is used than is essential for that member to achieve its function. The use of stronger steels allows a further decline in the quantity of material needed per structural element.

Long economic service-life

A steel load-bearing assembly provides ample liberty in the arrangement and rearrangement of the building. A skeleton-like erection facilitates the moving of interior walls, the replacement of facade elements, and even the later merger of floors or the installation of lifts or stairwells.

A lower floor height is the outcome of the full or partial mixing of steel beams in the floor structure. The lower floor height confines the volume of the building. This will ensure less volume to be cooled and heated. The energy bill can become lesser.

100% recyclable

A steel construction has a long service life, but at the end of the service life, the erection is just as easy to disassemble as it was to construct. After dismantling, following some revision, the original parts are appropriate for reuse as building components in new construction ventures. For instance, at present 50% of all structural steel is re-claimed as building components. The residual proportion is used as scrap in the production of new steel.

The easy dismantling makes steel preferably suitable for short-term erections.

Intensive use of space

A building can have an elongated service life, e.g. by ‘topping-up’. One or more new floors with a light steel structure diminish the extra loading on the existing structure and foundations and avoid expensive reinforcement. The new steel floors can enrich the current functional program, recover the image and also raise the profitability of the entire building.