By Hope Hrabowy and Brian Raff

I’m always amazed when I talk with sustainability practitioners about the sustainable aspects of steel.

More often than not, I find that these folks, like many of us, have been influenced by some misleading headline that paints the U.S. structural steelmaking industry as a dark and messy one. The truth is that while global steel production has historically been seen as environmentally unfriendly, the American steel industry is the cleanest and most energy-efficient of the leading steel industries in the world–and it’s actually been that way for decades. 

In fact, of the seven largest steel-producing countries, the U.S. has the lowest CO2 emissions per ton of steel produced and the lowest energy intensity. By contrast, Chinese steel production creates CO2 emissions that are almost 2.5 times higher—and uses 50% more energy compared to the U.S.—per ton of steel produced, according to a study sponsored by Global Efficiency Intelligence.

All structural steel shapes produced in the U.S. are made in electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which use electricity to melt cars, refrigerators, decommissioned bridges, and other scrap into new steel without any loss of quality. The average new member contains 93% recycled steel, and EAF steelmaking has 75% less emitted CO2 than basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking.

Despite where we are today,  industry innovations will continue to decrease the CO2 intensity of steel produced in the U.S. The structural steel industry is serious about decarbonization—and its footprint will continue to decrease as the U.S. power grid becomes less dependent on fossil fuels.  But American structural steel mills aren’t waiting for the power grid to catch up. They’re making their own public commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or intensity:

• Nucor has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 35% by 2030
• Steel Dynamics has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050
• Cleveland Cliffs has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030
• Gerdau just launched an 80-megawatt solar farm to generate clean, renewable electricity for its production line in Midlothian, Texas

When choosing a sustainable structural material, you need the full story. AISC works with some of the largest mills in the country to develop accurate industry-average environmental product declarations (EPDs) that consider a number of environmental impacts related to the manufacture of steel, including global warming potential, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, and ozone creation.

Other materials’ documentation excludes important carbon emission sources, like decomposing harvest waste and the release of embodied carbon at the end of a product’s service life. There is no steel “waste” as it goes right back into the supply chain, avoiding landfills completely. With steel, you get the complete picture. Learn more at aisc.org/sustainability.