SUSTAINABILITY AND STEEL CONSTRUCTION

Designers and builders have long recognized and lauded steel for its strength, durability, and
functionality. Increasingly, however, architects are recognizing steel ’s important environmental attributes —especially its high recycled content and high reclamation rate. Recycling saves money while conserving energy and resources, as well as reducing solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes. Recycling also helps to spread the energy impact of the original extraction and manufacturing of the material over infinite generations of new steel.

Steel construction materials contain at least 28 percent recycled steel and are completely recyclable. Using steel takes the pressure off renewable resources: a typical 2000-square-foot home requires about 40 to 50 trees, about an acre’s worth, to build with wood. With steel, only the equivalent of about six scrapped automobiles are needed.

Framing with steel as a material consumes only 6.25 percent of the total life-cycle energy used by a home; the balance is consumed by heating and cooling, food refrigeration and lighting. Thermal barrier insulating materials provide exceptional heat and cooling loss protection to steel-built homes. Additionally, steel framing results in less air loss around windows and doors as well as foundation and roofing connections.

In the construction industry, recent interest in recycling has been driven largely by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED^®) rating system. The LEED^® rating system only promotes the use of materials with high levels of recycled content. The equally important reclamation rate of the materials is not currently considered.

More information is available on this subject at the Steel Recycling Institute website at:
http://www.recycle-steel.org/leed.html.