Steel credit revision to drive best practice steel production

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has released the draft of a revised Green Star 'Steel' credit which aims to drive best practice steel production and fabrication and encourage dematerialisation of steel in structural applications in Australia.

The revised Steel credit has been released today for a four week public comment period, following an extensive 12-month review.

According to the Chief Executive of the GBCA, Romilly Madew, the review found that Australia's steel industry is already recycling at world's best practice rates. An estimated 2.8 million tonnes of steel is available for recycling in Australia each year. In the 2007-2008 financial year, 299,681 tonnes of this total was disposed of in landfill, while 2.54 million tonnes was recovered for recycling.

"A series of Steel Expert Reference Panel meetings, site visits, discussions with key stakeholders and examination of international studies found that current recycling rates from construction and industrial sources is close to 90 per cent," Ms Madew said.

"With that in mind, the Steel Expert Reference Panel concluded that a revised credit was required to remove the focus on high percentages of recycled steel content in new steel products, and instead encourage best practice steel production and fabrication and dematerialised efficiencies," Ms Madew said.

Green Star has included a 'Steel' credit since its inception in 2003, which encouraged the use of structural steel that contained a high percentage of recycled content. The Green Star 'Steel' credit was included in the first Green Star rating tool, Green Star - Office Design v1, and has featured in all subsequent tools.

Under the revised credit, up to two points will be awarded where at least 95 per cent of the total structural steel and reinforcing steel by mass is sourced from steel making facilities that not only have a currently valid ISO 14001 Environmental Management System in place, and are members of the World Steel Association's Climate Action Programme, but which meet other key best practice criteria.

A spokesperson from BlueScope Steel said that their organisation "has been working closely with the GBCA's Steel Expert Review Panel for over eight months. The revised Green Star 'Steel' credit is a significant step forward for the steel industry and the GBCA, and importantly, a positive one for the environment. While there will still be some challenges for the industry to attain the credit, it is achievable. BlueScope Steel is looking forward to seeing the steel credit implemented."

OneSteel's Leo Selleck, Executive General Manager, Technology Safety & Services commented "As members of the GBCA and a leading supplier of steel construction materials in Australia, OneSteel is highly supportive of sustainable construction and believes that steel has an important role to play in the growing green building industry in Australia. We are pleased this revised Green Star steel credit encourages more sustainable practices not only in steel production and but also in its use throughout the steel construction value chain from steelmaking to design and fabrication.

"OneSteel looks forward to the challenge of working with its customers and supply chain partners to facilitate adoption of these more sustainable practices in the near future," Mr Selleck said.

The revision of the Steel credit is part of a wider review of four of the GBCA's Green Star Materials category 'credits' - Timber, PVC, Concrete and Steel. The results of the Timber and PVC credits have already been released, with the results from the Concrete review to be released later this year.

According to Romilly Madew, the GBCA hopes the new credit will act as a driver for continued positive change within the steel production industry.

"The new Steel credit rewards best practice steel production and will encourage sustainability improvements in steel production across the supply chain," Ms Madew concluded.

Read more about the revised Steel credit. The public comment period will be open until 19 March 2010.

About Green Star
Green Star is a comprehensive, national, voluntary environmental rating system that evaluates the environmental design and construction of buildings. Green Star was developed for the property industry in order to:

• Establish a common language;
• Set a standard of measurement for green buildings;
• Promote integrated, whole-building design;
• Recognise environmental leadership;
• Identify building life-cycle impacts; and
• Raise awareness of green building benefits.

The GBCA constantly reviews Green Star credits across all nine of its rating categories, listening to feedback and studying the results of assessments, to ensure that each credit evolves with the industry. Regular review ensures that Green Star credits stay relevant, robust and easy to use.

Contact:
Karen Jamal
Communications
Green Building Council of Australia
Phone: 0412 179 135
Email: karen.jamal@gbca.org.au