ABSTRACT
The construction sector is responsible for a considerable share of global CO2 emissions. With the growing trend of the world population and the world’s building stock, the share of emissions of the built environment is bound to increase dramatically in the coming years. Embodied carbon of structural materials will be soon the major source of emissions in constructions. The most promising construction material to help reducing building emissions and enhancing circularity is certainly steel. Even if the steel industry has the stigma of being among the highest-emitting industries, the carbon footprint of its manufacturing process is rapidly decreasing, and today low carbon steel products are cutting emissions faster than before. In this work the decarbonization journey of the steel industry will be addressed and simplified embodied carbon calculations will be presented and discussed for different material solutions in structural applications.
