Embodied Carbon and Steel Products

Understanding BlueScope's approach to embodied carbon

Embodied carbon is the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole lifecycle of a building or infrastructure. These emissions can represent a significant share of a building's total environmental impact, making embodied carbon an increasingly important consideration for designers, specifiers and purchasers.

There is a growing preference for lower embodied carbon steel products to help meet sustainability and emissions reduction targets.

BlueScope transparently reports the embodied carbon of a range of key steel products through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

BlueScope is working to reduce the embodied carbon of our products. Information about BlueScope’s decarbonisation pathway and activities is available on our Climate Action page. For the latest product information, designers, specifiers and purchasers should refer to the most recent EPDs. In some cases, BlueScope EPD upfront emissions¹ values may be significantly lower than the default values used by NABERS.

Recommendations for designers, specifiers and purchasers

While the steel decarbonisation transition is underway:

1. Specify or source steel from producers who are aligned with a dual decarbonisation approach² rather than basing decisions on carbon footprint in isolation

• Global demand for steel is expected to exceed the available supply of scrap steel, meaning recycling alone will not be sufficient to decarbonise global steelmaking by 2050. This means there is a need to simultaneously reduce emissions from both primary steelmaking (made predominantly with iron ore) and secondary steelmaking (made with high recycled content) rather than focusing on recycled content alone.
• This approach is recommended by steel authorities including the Science Based Targets Initiative, worldsteel and SteelZero. ResponsibleSteel™ certification is one of the key ways a steelmaker can demonstrate a dual decarbonisation approach. BlueScope’s Port Kembla Steelworks is a ResponsibleSteel™ certified site.
   

2. Request Environmental Product Declarations from suppliers to promote transparency and consider product embodied carbon alongside a dual decarbonisation approach

Specifying steel based only on its carbon footprint is…a highly ineffective mechanism for driving reductions in overall GHG emissions."³
Dr. Martin Theuringer, ResponsibleSteel/LESS report.

3. Reduce steel consumption through circular design

• Circular design strategies include design optimisation and dematerialisation, design for disassembly, design for manufacture and assembly and steel reuse.
   

More information

• See Climate Action to learn more about BlueScope’s decarbonisation approach.
• See Recycled Content to learn more about embodied carbon and scrap steel content.
• Learn more about circular design principles and BlueScope's approach to circularity.