Environmental claims should identify the product and assessment basis. Earlier numerical carbon comparisons on this page did not have a sufficiently traceable basis and have been removed. A generic claim about recycled steel is not a project-specific environmental assessment.
Read the declaration, not just a headline
Ask for the relevant Environmental Product Declaration, product coverage, publication and validity dates, declared unit and life-cycle modules. Compare quantities and boundaries consistently; results from different stages cannot be added or compared indiscriminately.
British Steel’s sustainability page links its product declarations. Check the current document and whether it covers the actual supplied product. A declaration from one manufacturer does not describe all steel sold by a stockholder.
Record the project quantities
Use the issued schedule, fabricated masses and transport information appropriate to the assessment. Our weight tool estimates bare-section mass only. It excludes plates, finishes and transport, and therefore does not calculate embodied carbon.
Reuse and material reduction
Discuss opportunities with the structural designer and supply chain. Reuse needs identification and suitability evidence; a lighter alternative requires a full revised design. Do not exchange a specified section or assume an unknown reclaimed beam is suitable solely to reduce a reported mass.
Keep the source documents, assumptions and calculation boundary with any environmental claim.
Structural work must be designed by a chartered structural engineer and receive the applicable Building Control approval. This article is educational and has not received an independent engineering review.