STEEL FRAME CONSTRUCTION: DRIVEN BY STEEL: - OneSteel

Structural Steel’s Role in
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTS
Grandstand at WIN Stadium
relocated from the Aquatic Centre.
It is generally accepted that the definition of Sustainable
Development (SD) is: “Development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs”
The underlying principle behind this
definition of SD is that there needs to be
an integration of economic, environmental
and social considerations, whilst seeking
the optimal outcomes. These key factors
should not be examined in isolation but
in totality and a long-term view rather than
a short-term view should be taken
in making decisions.
Even though the tools for making better
SD decisions is a developing area, there
is a strong and growing drive by the
community to readily adopt all that is
believed to be SD, and not necessarily with
much understanding of whether tools or
decisions are scientifically well grounded.
The increased level of embracement of SD
principles and tools is particularly driven by
the broader community’s realisation that
human interaction with the environment
is impacting on climate change and water
resources. Currently the most popular tools
used to measure or compare the level of
sustainability between developments are in
the form of a checklist or scorecard. As a
developing science, it is important that these
tools are simple and easily adjustable to
cater for the ever-increasing improvements
in the science that will affect arbitrary
weighting factors, credit points, and
aspects to be rated in those tools. They
Better informed
design is the key.
should be relevant in the decision making
for building design and operation for the
entire life cycle of the building including
design, materials production, construction,
operation, maintenance, demolition,
component reuse or material recycle.
If we look back at the definition of SD, we
realise that the integration of environmental,
economic and social policies is a complex
task which is difficult to package and
calibrate using just a simple scorecard.
To be effective it requires all the
stakeholders to examine the consequences
of the scorecard and offer research and
opinions to improve the calibration of these
scorecards. OneSteel is committed to the
environment and therefore has allocated
resources into this area to provide feedback
to the organisations responsible for
administering these scorecards.
The Green Buildings Council Australia’s
Green Star system is one such a rating
tool for which OneSteel has provided
submissions to identify areas or issues.
Steel is the most recycled material in the
world by weight. This is presumably the
reason why it is one of the first things
that comes to mind when considering
SD. However, this is not the key, better
informed design is the key. In its
submissions OneSteel has also reflected
on the hierarchy of factors that will
improve the environmental performance
of buildings which contain structural steel.
The hierarchy is based on the simple fact
that the order of importance in SD is (1)
Reduce; (2) Reuse; and finally (3) Recycle.
OneSteel and its predecessors have devoted
significant resources to improving the
material strengths of their steel products.
While this was predominantly to be the able
to offer a premium product in the market
place, from an SD perspective, it has also
effectively reduced the amount of steel that
would otherwise be consumed. The support
OneSteel has offered to the development
of Australian Design Standards and the
design guides that OneSteel publishes
promoting more economical designs are
also now effectively facilitating design of
SD by reducing the amount of steel that
would have been used.
Steel-framed buildings are chosen by
many developers because of the inherent
ease with which they can be modified
or adapted. These buildings are easily
extended either vertically or laterally,
unbolted and re-bolted, strengthened and
reshaped because of the nature of the
connection of one piece of steel to another.
Furthermore good design at inception will
allow the steel elements of the structure
to be unbolted and reused elsewhere.
The grandstand seating for the Olympics
at the Sydney Aquatic Centre, which has
been disassembled and relocated to WIN
Stadium, is one such high-profile example.
Refurbishing steel members by re-rolling
to straighten, cutting and drilling, etc
for new application is also an option to
consider before recycling. Component
reuse will save more energy and reduce
greenhouse effects, compared to the
next option of remelting into new steel.
However, when all the reduce and reuse
options are exhausted the steel can be
recycled as is already the case with
around 95% of structural steel that is
used for construction in Australia.
The Green Buildings Council Australia
has recently launched a Shopping Centre
Design Pilot, which includes a new section
in the Materials category that allocates
points to “Reused Products and Materials”
and “Disassembly and Adaptability”.
This is a very pleasing development
and indicates that the submissions by
OneSteel and others are now being
considered.
For more information on
sustainable developments
contact OneSteel direct on
1800 1 78335 (1800 1 STEEL)
OneSteel Solutions
issue 8 page