Re-use of structural steel within construction

The project team is Ellis and Moore, Cleveland Steel and Tubes, Steel Construction Institute and Cullinan Studio, led by the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products. The National Federation of Demolition Contractors, UCL Institute of Sustainable Resources and University of Cambridge have all offered expertise. It aims to overcome barriers to steel re-use and kick-start a market in five to ten years of 25kT per year, 10% of current UK scrap arising, with a value of £12.5m. Steel re-use has 4% impact of new steel (BRE: 2004), offers cost benefits and job creation. Circular economy principles indicates the building is no longer the end product. Instead, the built environment can be viewed as a rolling infrastructure of products; this demands a new approach to the design of buildings. By designing first for deconstruction and re-use, it is essential that architects, engineers and deconstruction/ salvage experts communicate; currently they are at either end of a linear supply chain. This project will develop a plan for a value network to address this and develop business models for Cleveland Steel and Tubes and ASBP to operate in this new market.