Why does steel construction reduce carbon emissions?

Production and Construction

Steel structures have slender members, while concrete structures are solid, so steel structures use relatively less material; their weight is also much lighter than concrete structures, so the energy consumed during transportation of steel components is obviously less; in terms of construction, steel structures do not require the use of water and formwork, and have fewer construction personnel and shorter cycle times, which also helps to reduce carbon emissions.

Operation and Maintenance

The structural system of steel structure is separated from the maintenance system, so it is possible to use the maintenance system with different heat preservation and insulation performance under various climatic conditions, and it is not necessary to rely on increasing the thickness of walls to achieve energy saving and emission reduction, as in the case of concrete structure.

Demolition and recycling

China is demolishing a large number of concrete and brick-concrete buildings, and the recycling rate of concrete and bricks is very low. Steel, on the other hand, has recyclable properties that can effectively reduce carbon emissions.

It is based on these green advantages that in recent years, the state has issued a number of heavyweight policies to encourage the development of the steel structure industry, including the Opinions on Vigorously Developing Steel Structure Buildings (Consultation Draft), the Action Program for the Creation of Green Buildings, and the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Synergistic Development of Intelligent Construction and the Industrialization of Buildings, etc. In October 2021, the Central Office and the State Office issued the Opinions on Promoting the Green Development of Urban and Rural Construction, which also clearly states that steel is a key component in the development of urban and rural construction. The Opinions on Promoting Green Development of Urban and Rural Construction was issued by the Office of the Central People’s Government and the State Council in October 2021, which also explicitly mentions the vigorous development of assembled buildings, with a focus on promoting the construction of steel-structured assembled houses.

After all, the application of steel structure in China is still short. Data show that at present, the proportion of steel structure buildings in developed countries is more than 40% of the total construction volume, the proportion of steel structure buildings in China is only 5-7%, and the proportion of steel structure houses is only about 1%.

Therefore, the application of steel structure is still to be improved in many aspects. On the one hand, China’s design and construction capacity still needs to be improved, and during the construction period, it is easy to appear that there is not enough capacity to analyze and solve all kinds of technical problems, resulting in the decline of construction quality and efficiency; on the other hand, due to the low threshold of the domestic steel structure processing enterprises, the sloppy management, and the lack of attention to all kinds of details, which leads to the gap between the processing details and the same kind of products in foreign countries, for example, in terms of the supporting maintenance materials and connecting parts, the domestic products are complete and durable. For example, in terms of supporting maintenance materials and connectors, the domestic products are not as complete and durable as their foreign counterparts; there is also a particularly important point, that is, there is a large talent gap in the field of steel structure in China.

Under China’s “dual-carbon” goal, the development of steel structure building undoubtedly ushered in a period of opportunity to refine and overcome the technology related to steel structure building in order to build a better low-carbon future.