Steel as a sustainable choice towards the green building concept

Abstract

Due to the significant global environmental impacts of building construction through water consumption, energy use, gas emission and solid waste, a building's sustainability becomes the fourth consideration after cost, time and quality for the success of its design and construction. The green building standards state that a building is considered environmentally green whenever its structure and expected use simultaneously match the prescribed environmental standards over the span of its life-cycle. Therefore, the life cycle assessment of different buildings was studied to investigate building sustainability and how to achieve the criteria for green buildings. It was shown that a green building does not have a particular construction method, but it is a set of techniques, materials, and technologies suitably integrated together to improve the environmental performance of the building. Thus, this research will focus on steel as the main construction material which can be an appropriate choice that represents interesting solutions to fulfill the green building standards. The characteristics of durability, adaptability and recyclability of steel structures can definitely be highlighted at construction sustainability principles. Otherwise, the Egyptian steel industry has been performing a great effort to accomplish the optimum environmental performance, provide a high structural performance and quality, and satisfy clients' requirements for sustainability. Data from a private steel plant in Egypt has been compiled as a step to complete the Egyptian life cycle inventory so that the steel industry could be environmentally assessed.