The new government has set out its stall to promote growth in a low carbon economy. Major growth areas for the UK economy over the coming years will almost certainly include projects to create carbon reducing infrastructure facilities to support the drive towards net-zero carbon.
A good example is the wind power infrastructure that is replacing carbon emitting industries of the past like coal. Evidence of offshore wind power projects are easy to see on developments all around the coastline, and there is also a lot of steel-built land based development associated with manufacturing these large structures. In this issue we report on steel being used to build what is said to be the world’s largest monopile factory, whose products will be used in the growing offshore wind industry. Interestingly, this vast factory is being built on the old Redcar steelworks site.
Another possibly less obvious growth area is the data centres that are needed to support the use of artificial intelligence (AI), as security considerations mean data centre operators are reluctant to reveal locations. But BCSA members can confirm that there are a lot of them, they are big, and they are being built with steel.
All future infrastructure will of course be increasingly built with low carbon and other sustainability issues in mind, requirements that steel construction is enviably placed to meet. There is no standing still on this and the steel sector makes every effort to improve its sustainability performance. Evidence of efforts being made by BCSA member steelwork contractors to reduce their own carbon footprints is found in this month’s Headline Sponsor article from Barrett Steel, who have reduced their carbon footprint by 17% from their 2021 baseline. Evidence of this effort can be found at BCSA members up and down the UK and Ireland.
In News this month we have a story about Tata Steel signing a contract to create a state-of-the-art electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot site, in what will be arguably the most significant development in UK steel manufacturing since 1857, when Sir Henry Bessemer patented the process that made mass production of low cost, high quality steel possible. The EAF will reduce steelmaking carbon emissions at the site by 90%, a striking reduction by any standard.
Another carbon reduction development is the new Best Practice Guide for low carbon embodied steel buildings, from the BCSA and the Steel Construction Institute, that can also be read about in News. It is hoped this will help promote a focus on design efficiency – identified in BCSA’s 2050 Decarbonisation Roadmap as a quick and significant contributor to carbon reduction. Efficiently designed buildings are more cost effective as well as more environmentally friendly, so will be welcomed by cost conscious developers.
Carbon reduction isn’t the new government’s only policy, and tackling the housing crisis has been singled out as a priority in which steel construction can also play a key part. Light-Gauge steelwork will no doubt have a big role to play, and to support that BCSA has just launched the first National Light-Gauge Steelwork Specification. Following the framework set out by the specification will deliver confidence that the Building Safety Act requirements for residential buildings are being properly met. And with all the sustainability benefits of steel.
Steel’s carbon emissions on track for striking reductions
The new government has set out its stall to promote growth in a low carbon economy. Major growth areas for the UK economy over the coming years will almost certainly include projects to create carbon reducing infrastructure facilities to support the drive towards net-zero carbon.
A good example is the wind power infrastructure that is replacing carbon emitting industries of the past like coal. Evidence of offshore wind power projects are easy to see on developments all around the coastline, and there is also a lot of steel-built land based development associated with manufacturing these large structures. In this issue we report on steel being used to build what is said to be the world’s largest monopile factory, whose products will be used in the growing offshore wind industry. Interestingly, this vast factory is being built on the old Redcar steelworks site.
Another possibly less obvious growth area is the data centres that are needed to support the use of artificial intelligence (AI), as security considerations mean data centre operators are reluctant to reveal locations. But BCSA members can confirm that there are a lot of them, they are big, and they are being built with steel.
All future infrastructure will of course be increasingly built with low carbon and other sustainability issues in mind, requirements that steel construction is enviably placed to meet. There is no standing still on this and the steel sector makes every effort to improve its sustainability performance. Evidence of efforts being made by BCSA member steelwork contractors to reduce their own carbon footprints is found in this month’s Headline Sponsor article from Barrett Steel, who have reduced their carbon footprint by 17% from their 2021 baseline. Evidence of this effort can be found at BCSA members up and down the UK and Ireland.
In News this month we have a story about Tata Steel signing a contract to create a state-of-the-art electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot site, in what will be arguably the most significant development in UK steel manufacturing since 1857, when Sir Henry Bessemer patented the process that made mass production of low cost, high quality steel possible. The EAF will reduce steelmaking carbon emissions at the site by 90%, a striking reduction by any standard.
Another carbon reduction development is the new Best Practice Guide for low carbon embodied steel buildings, from the BCSA and the Steel Construction Institute, that can also be read about in News. It is hoped this will help promote a focus on design efficiency – identified in BCSA’s 2050 Decarbonisation Roadmap as a quick and significant contributor to carbon reduction. Efficiently designed buildings are more cost effective as well as more environmentally friendly, so will be welcomed by cost conscious developers.
Carbon reduction isn’t the new government’s only policy, and tackling the housing crisis has been singled out as a priority in which steel construction can also play a key part. Light-Gauge steelwork will no doubt have a big role to play, and to support that BCSA has just launched the first National Light-Gauge Steelwork Specification. Following the framework set out by the specification will deliver confidence that the Building Safety Act requirements for residential buildings are being properly met. And with all the sustainability benefits of steel.