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Sustainable steel
Steel is the world’s most important engineering and construction material and is used in every aspect of our lives from cars to buildings, to the technology used to package our food or make the cups we drink from.
In Aotearoa, local steel manufacturing and fabrication is an important part of our economy, infrastructure and society, and is an essential technology to our way of life. Many are surprised to learn that steel contributes to just 2.2% of New Zealand’s total CO2 emissions – which is much lower than other industries. Steel has an important role to play in our zero-carbon future, which means our social licence to operate is fundamental to the long-term sustainability of the steel industry in Aotearoa.
We know that Aotearoa wants to reduce CO2 emissions, increase recycling and improve productivity, with less impact to our environment – and steel is at the heart of solving these challenges.
Driving understanding
HERA’s role in sustainability
Improving the sustainability credentials of steel.
We aren’t a spokes group for steel manufacturers. They themselves will need to identify and communicate their plans for reducing carbon emissions through the steel making process directly.
Our role is to stimulate innovation to future-proof our industry. That’s why we’ve led the way in developing and implementing two key carbon initiatives for zero carbon steel building products in Aotearoa, and accounting for and offsetting our own carbon emissions.
To achieve this, we’ve aligned with like-minded organisation such as the Sustainable Steel Council (SSC), thinkstep-anz and industry early adopters in the sustainability space. Together, developing case studies, templates and programs to improve the sustainability credentials of our industry.
Steels contribution to the circular economy
A global challenge requiring a global solution.
The steel industry is integral to the global circular economy. It’s core to the successful delivery and maintenance of a sustainable future. The transition to renewable energies such as geothermal, solar, hydro, wind and wave energy generation, will also require extensive use of steel.
Steel is also infinitely recyclable, and its by-products and waste energies are valuable resources. For example, slag from steelmaking is used for civil works, saving natural resources such as river gravel and scoria. In Aotearoa, New Zealand Steel produces up to 70% of its own energy requirements, through co-generation. They have also announced plans to develop an electric arc furnace to enable re-use of steel scrap for steel production.
Our research is focused on not only fostering understanding of steel’s role in the circular economy and low carbon future, but also driving research to improve our credentials in this space.
Our expert
Latest news & resources
This report defines ‘common language’ for steel construction to support HERA’s “Structures as Steel Banks” project, aiding steel reuse through material passports.
LCA is the backbone of data-driven decision-making in our Construction 4.0 project to evaluate and optimise circular design.