Anyone concerned about delivering sustainable construction projects will understand the benefits of steel fabrication in the delivery phase. But delivery isn’t the whole story.
Sustainability also has to address where materials come from and how they’re manufactured. Here too, steel has an increasingly positive story to tell.
As a reminder, here are the main project delivery-related benefits of steel fabrication:
- Steel is versatile, durable and almost infinitely recyclable. Steel fabrication also makes the material easy to recover when the structure reaches its end of life.
- Steel reduces the need for cement and concrete, which have a high carbon cost and aren’t easily recyclable.
- Steel fabrication is ideal for offsite construction methods.
Sustainable Steel Production
If you know anything about the history of steelmaking you’ll probably have a picture in your mind of coal-fired blast furnaces belching smoke and CO2 into the atmosphere. Think again.
The future for steelmaking – at least as far as the UK is concerned – is one where electric arc furnaces recycle scrap steel into new products.
British Steel recently announced a £1.25bn plan to replace two blast furnaces in the Scunthorpe steelworks with electric arc furnaces. Tata Steel estimates that replacing blast furnaces at Port Talbot with electric arc furnaces will save 5m tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
As our electricity grid is decarbonised, power will increasingly come from renewables.
Elsewhere, H2 Green Steel in Sweden is in the process of building a hydrogen-fuelled steel plant that promises a 95% reduction in carbon emissions compared to traditional steelmaking.
As carbon emissions are reduced from the material supply end of the process, steel fabrication becomes a highly sustainable choice.
Sustainable Fabrication
When it comes to fabricating structures, FTE directly generates 65% of the energy needed each year to run our production facility from solar panels. In the summer months we achieve 100% energy sourcing from renewables.
Our process of intelligent integration also improves project delivery to minimise the need to onsite rework, which can be carbon-intensive.
If you’re interested in sustainable construction and how steel fabrication fits into this big picture, access our resources to discover more. Or contact info@fourtees.co.uk
