Environmental Considerations

• It can take as many as 25 old growth trees to build a 2,500 square foot timber frame home,    compared with as many as 7 recycled automobiles for the same steel framed home.
  
  
• Steel is 100% recyclable and can be considered a green building material. 
  
  
• Steel reduces the burden on landfill sites. All steel waste on site can be segregated for recycling. 
  
  
• Steel is 100% recyclable without any loss of quality. Currently in the UK, when buildings using structural steelwork frames come to the end of their useful lives, 86% of the steel sections are recycled to create more steel products and 13% are re-used in their existing form. 
  
• Steel is very friendly to the environment. It is completely recyclable, possesses great durability, and, compared to other materials, requires relatively low amounts of energy to produce. Innovative lightweight steel construction helps to save energy and resources. The steel industry has made immense efforts to limit environmental pollution in the last decades. Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by one-half of what they were in the 1960s. Dust emissions have been reduced by even more. (International Iron and Steel Institute)