BCSA’s guide to steel’s carbon credentials now available

Providing guidance and information to designers, to help them in their decision making as they strive to address the climate emergency, the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) and Steel for Life have produced a new publication, which is distributed with this issue of NSC and available online at: www.steelconstruction.info.

Entitled ‘Steel Construction: Carbon Credentials’ the publication highlights the many advantages of using structural steelwork and the environmental benefits that can be derived from choosing steel for buildings and other structures.

Within the publication an informative article on steelmaking describes how both of the main processes require significant amounts of recycled content for their production and sets out major manufacturer’s plans for zero-carbon steelmaking by 2050.

The growing importance of embodied carbon in the drive towards a decarbonised world is discussed and the case is made for appropriate whole life carbon assessments. Steel has outstanding credentials on this key carbon score as it is typically reused or recycled, and it almost never adds to construction and demolition waste sent to landfill.

Operational carbon and thermal mass are explained in another article as well as how steel-framed buildings are capable of meeting the most stringent operational requirements in the drive towards net zero carbon emissions.

There are also features explaining steelwork’s recyclability and sutability for reuse, steel’s contribution to the circular economy, the BCSA’s push for sustainable procurement, and project reports on four high-scoring BREEAM rated steel-framed buildings.