Sustainability

Steel Grey is the New Green

The reality is that steel is the greenest bridge solution you can specify. When you specify or use steel for your next project, you're getting more than just the highest quality solution. Steel is the industry’s most environmentally-friendly construction material because it’s the world’s most recycled material.

In fact, three-fourths of all American steel ends up recycled in new products, including Steel bridges and corrugated steel pipe. And steel requires less energy and materials to produce.

Steelmaking Process [Source: Steel Recycling Institute]	Basic Oxygen Furnace	Electric Arc Furnace
Total Recycled Content*	28.9%	82.8%
Recycle Content Value for LEED Certification
Post-Consumer Content Value	22.3%	46.2%
Post-Industrial Content Value	6.1%	31.1%

*Details add to less than total due to exclusion of “home scrap” for LEED purposes. Check the LEED web site for most current data.

To earn LEED points, simply specify Big R steel bridges and ask us for a recycle content certification.

Materials & Resources Credit 4

Recycled Content intends to increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, therefore reducing impacts resulting from extraction and processing of new virgin materials. Steel building products contribute positively toward earning points under Credit 4.1 and Credit 4.2. The following is required by LEED Version 2.1:

Credit 4.1 (1 point)

"Use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the post-industrial content constitutes at least 5% of the total value of the materials in the project."

Credit 4.2 (1 point)

"Use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the post-industrial content constitutes at least 10% of the total value of the materials in the project." "The value of the recycled content portion of a material or furnishing shall be determined by dividing the weight of recycled content in the item by the total weight of all materials in the item, then multiplying the resulting percentage by the total value of the item." Since steel (the material) and steel (the building product) are the same, the value of the steel building product is directly multiplied by steel's recycled content, or,

Steel Recycled Content Value =
(Value of Steel Product) (Post-Consumer % + 1/2 Post-Industrial %)

Sustainable Construction Links

Information provided by the Steel Recycling Institute.