Thursday 10 February 2022 from 15.00 – 16.00 CET.

In partnership with PV Magazine, ArcelorMittal will hold a webinar on sustainability and the CO2 footprint reduction of solar mounting structures.

Sustainability and the environmental impact of PV plants is fast climbing up the agenda. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly essential to consider the entire life cycle of PV when making decisions about materials and products. For PV plants, mounting systems have a key role to play in improving solar’s green credentials, from the perspective of both projects and companies.

Steel: the material of choice, including Magnelis®

Steel is the material of choice when it comes to mounting systems due to its relative low cost, robustness, infinite recyclability potential, and its long-term durability when combined with the latest generation of protective coatings against corrosion. Given these benefits, and combined with new production technologies, the use of steel will continue to grow in popularity when it comes to the engineering and manufacturing of mounting structures with a minimised environmental footprint.

Backing up these assertions, PV Magazine webinar partner, ArcelorMittal, a leading supplier of steel and a major actor in the solar industry, will talk about its foray into the world of low CO2 steel and present solutions to improve mounting structure design, durability, and environmental impact.

One of the company’s focusses is to promote the adoption of higher strength steel products which have the potential to reduce the weight of components by up to 30% via structural design optimisation to reduce costs and, simultaneously, lower CO2 emissions.

ArcelorMittal is also continuing to strengthen the corrosion resistance of its Magnelis® coated steel to increase the lifetime of solar investments. Complementing this, is the product’s design and manufacturing process, which uses fewer natural resources and generates less run-off in soil and water, among other benefits.

Creating a circular steel economy with XCarb®

Overall, ArcelorMittal’s goal is to create a circular steel economy. To achieve this, it has launched its XCarb® programme, and has already earmarked 10 billion USD to reduce its European CO2 emissions intensity by 35% by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. The programme encompasses circular carbon and carbon storage projects and clean power generation. It further aims to use hydrogen instead of natural gas in the direct reduction of iron ore (DRI).

Webinar content

Join ArcelorMittal Europe’s Jérôme Guth, Solar Segment Leader, Corinne Dieu, Product leader for Metallic Coated Steels, and Hugo Campos, Sustainable Development Manager, to discover steel solutions that not only offer environmental benefits and improved durability but that can also make a significant step in achieving the sustainability goals required for your business and our planet.

Topics will include:

•    The benefits of Magnelis® coated steel for increasing durability, including for foundations in soils or concrete
•    The benefits of high strength steel, in terms of weight, cost, and CO2 footprint reduction
•    Additional benefits in terms of preservation of natural resources and processability
•    Reducing steel’s CO2 footprint and boosting sustainability credentials via such steps as using recycled materials, electric furnaces, implementing circular carbon technologies, and using renewable electricity
•    XCarb® Green steel certificates and associated customer benefits

Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia

Images:
PV Magazine
CWF

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Registration

The winners of the SIMI 2021 Grand Prix, sponsored by Groupama Immobilier, were announced on 8 December 2021. One of the prizes, for constructions built between September 2020 and September 2021, was awarded to the new headquarters of Oui Care.  The headquarters, located in Le Mans, France, took the prize in the New Office Building of 10 000 m2 or Greater category.

Care: the key word

Initially, the designers of the project proposed the name ‘Just Care’ for the building, which the project manager imagined as "a headquarters that could best take care of its employees."

The usage of the word ‘care’ “perfectly sums up the vocation of home services - a profession based on people. Oui Care was born of a conviction: a satisfied, happy, and fulfilled employee in his or her job is a 99.9% guarantee of a satisfied customer. As a company, it is our responsibility to take care of our employees and to put them in the best possible conditions to accomplish their mission: to satisfy our customers," says Guillaume Richard, president and founder of Oui Care.

Facts and figures

The new Oui Care headquarters offers its employees 600 offices over 7500 m2, five accessible terraces over 1078 m2, a sports ground, a fitness room, and a weight room in addition to 184 parking spaces and a day care on the ground floor of the building. The site is easily accessible due to its location in the immediate vicinity of the Le Mans TGV rail station, but it also encourages employees to cycle to work thanks to numerous cycle paths. Additionally, the Oui Care headquarters has been designed with an exemplary environmental quality approach.*

Winning the SIMI Grand Prix is a great source of pride for the teams who contributed to the realisation of this project: Oui Care as the project owner and AIA Life Designers as the architect and design office.  ArcelorMittal Europe - Flat Products supplied Granite® Silky Shine steel in Sienna for the facade, which was produced by ArcelorMittal partner Ateliers 3S.

Granite® Silky Shine is a coating system that ensures excellent colour stability over time thanks to its excellent performance in terms of durability, corrosion resistance, and UV resistance.

*For more information on the winning project, please see Oui Care’s press release.

Text:
Constructalia

Images:
OUI CARE
AIA Architectes

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Conscious of the importance of reducing the carbon footprint in civil engineering by supplying durable products with reduced environmental impacts, ArcelorMittal is looking into the eco-design of its product range of steel sheet piles. In 2019, ArcelorMittal assigned a Belgian engineering firm with the task of designing and comparing technical and financial aspects of three different alternatives to build a 200-metre-long quay wall for a new cruise ship terminal in a Belgian port. The new brochure, Sustainable Ports – Life Cycle Assessment, focusses on the environmental impact of the two most cost-effective solutions resulting from this study and on their Global Warming Potential (GWP).

Port structures: status quo and future needs

Ports have been faced with quite a number of challenges in recent years. On the one hand, sea traffic has steadily increased and modern vessels are getting bigger. On the other hand, our planet is struggling with greenhouse gas emissions. Ports need to expand with new berths being built, but how can we achieve these goals without harming the environment?

Before building a new structure, examining the possibility of extending the service life of existing structures makes sense. This is the best option from an environmental point of view, but older structures typically require retrofitting. Hence, only an economic and environmental analysis can help the owner make an informed decision. When it comes to increasing the dredge level to welcome vessels with higher drafts or when existing structures are close to failure, building a new quay wall may be the sole viable option.

Identifying the most efficient solutions for a modern quay wall

ArcelorMittal appointed Tractebel, an independent Belgian consulting engineering firm, to analyse this multifaceted topic. The engineers proposed focussing on three key indicators: technical, financial, and environmental criteria. Their task consisted of comparing three different technical solutions for those indicators. The selected structure for analysis was a cruise ship terminal capable of accommodating the largest cruise ships. It would be built in a Belgian port, with a draught of 13 m in typical soil and load conditions for a Belgian port.

This brochure focuses on the environmental impact of the two most cost-effective solutions resulting from this study - a steel sheet pile wall and a concrete diaphragm wall - and on their Global Warming Potential (GWP).

Life Cycle Analysis and Global Warming Potential as sustainability indicators

The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the two most cost-efficient solutions was based on the bill of quantities prepared by Tractebel, performed by ArcelorMittal’s R&D department, and peer-reviewed by an independent panel of experts.

The objective was to compare the Total Life Cycle Cost of the steel sheet pile and the concrete diaphragm solutions, including the burdens or benefits of the end-of-life phase (the dismantling and recycling of the building elements without considering reuse).

For this type of application, an LCA is a reasonably fair and transparent method to compare different solutions and suppliers. Although not required by ISO and EN standards, an LCA is more accurate and realistic when it uses specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) from the producers rather than generic data from databases.

Construction cost (including design) was chosen as the principal key indicator for the choice of solution. The key environmental indicator analysed in this case was the carbon footprint expressed as the GWP. Its impact for the base scenario is summarised in the graph for a 200-metre-long wall.  This indicator can be included in a scheme to choose the most sustainable solution, referring to the most economically advantageous tender.

The winner is…the EcoSheetPile™ solution!

In this study for the construction of a 200-metre-long quay wall, the steel sheet pile wall made with EcoSheetPile™ (sheet piles produced from 100% recycled steel in an Electric Arc Furnace) offers a 44% lower carbon footprint compared to the diaphragm wall. This corresponds to a saving of 559 tonnes of CO2-eq.

In its quest to further improve the eco-design of steel sheet piles, ArcelorMittal uses renewable energy in the secondary production route (Electric Arc Furnace), thus further reducing the GWP by around 30% (based on the EcoSheetPile™ Plus EPD).

The EcoSheetPile™ Plus range is part of ArcelorMittal's 'XCarb® Recycled and renewably produced' brand.

Download the brochure to learn more about the goals, scope and assumptions, methodology, detailed results, sensibility analysis, conclusions, and limitations of this study.

Text:
ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling
Constructalia

Images:
Courtesy of Port of Rønne
ArcelorMittal Sheet Piling

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Sustainable Ports: Life Cycle Assessment

Epco, a leading producer of insulated panels for garage, commercial, and industrial doors, has recently purchased XCarb® green steel certificates from ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products with the Granite® organic coated steel used in its products.

“ArcelorMittal’s XCarb® green steel certificates will help us orient the door market towards a greener future,” says Luc De Deygere, CEO of Epco. “We see the certificates as a major opportunity for all involved.”

Greener production routes

Epco is very aware of the need to continue its active role in helping the world to reduce carbon emissions as Luc De Deygere explains: “The recent flooding in Belgium and Germany and the forest fires in the south of Europe are clear indications that climate change is happening faster than expected. As a business, Epco has already taken action to reduce our carbon footprint. That has seen us install solar panels on the factory roof and make use of electric vehicles. But we need to do more. That’s why we have decided to purchase ArcelorMittal’s XCarb® green steel certificates.”

“We are working with our suppliers to identify raw materials with a low environmental footprint and which contain as much recycled content as possible,” says Luc De Deygere. “These materials must be easy to recycle. Steel is already very environmentally friendly as it contains a lot of recycled material, and it can be recycled over and over. The XCarb® green steel certificates help to confirm this advantage.”

Motivating customers

Epco will pass the XCarb® green steel certificates on to its customers. “We hope they will help to motivate them to follow greener production routes,” says Luc De Deygere. “That will bring real change to the door market.”

About Epco

Belgian company Epco supplies panels under two main brand names – Epco and Tecsedo – from three production sites in Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland. The panels are supplied to customers who provide complete door solutions to end customers around the world.

More info: www.epco.be

Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia

Images:
Epco

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Across Europe, standing seam roofs are a key feature in the landscape of many cities and towns. Made from flexible metals, they are an ideal solution for the odd-shaped roofs of apartment blocks and public buildings where every millimetre of space under the roof is utilised. The standing seam provides a high level of resistance to wind and excellent watertightness, making it a popular roofing solution today. Organic coated steels such as the Granite® HFX Cool range from ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products offer the necessary pliability, combined with a hard-wearing finish that is guaranteed for up to 20 years. Bevego, a leading provider of roofing solutions and equipment for the Swedish market, recently started utilising the latest product in the range – Granite® HFX Cool Matt.

Standing seam roofing

Traditional standing seams are formed from strips of metal which are laid vertically down the roof. The standing seam is formed by bending up the edge of a strip and folding it over, together with the edge of the neighbouring strip. The result is a double standing seam which is totally weatherproof.

Roofing complexity demands ductility

“To achieve the double standing seam, roofers need flexible materials,” says Johan Cronhamn, business area manager for Bevego. “For complicated roofs with lots of dormer windows and chimneys, the work has to be done on site and at height. Granite® HFX Cool Matt handles well and can be formed at temperatures down to -10°C – a key consideration when it comes to the Swedish climate!”

Traditionally, standing seam roofs were made with copper and zinc – metals which are initially bright but become duller over time. In the early 2000s, materials with a gloss finish became more popular. Over the last few years, the market has switched back, explains Johan Cronhamn: “There is a strong preference now for low-gloss roofing. The steel is bent and pressed into shape on the roof and the matt colour disguises any minor marks. That is another reason for the growing popularity of Granite® HFX Cool Matt.”

Magnelis® – the new material for standing seams

Bevego has also been working with a sister company to develop roadside safety equipment out of Magnelis® coated steels from ArcelorMittal. From autumn 2021 they will start to use Magnelis® for standing seam roofs. “Architects like the patina that darkens over time, and Magnelis® has minimal reflectivity, making it suitable for low buildings,” says Johan Cronhamn.

“The Magnelis® we use in roadside applications has a thickness of around 3.0 mm, and it is able to withstand the very corrosive effects of road salts,” notes Johan Cronhamn. “In roofing applications, we will use it in a thickness of 0.6 mm. That will provide the material flexibility roofers need, and long-term protection against corrosion.”

About Bevego

Bevego is a leading provider of sheet metal, ventilation systems, and equipment for roofing and industry applications. Based in Sweden, the company operates more than 30 retail outlets, a steel service centre, and four plants which produce ventilation systems.

Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia

Images:
brizmaker / Adobe Stock by courtesy of Bevego
Palatinate Stock / Shutterstock.com

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ArcelorMittal has published its second group climate action report, following the first group report published in May 2019 and the European climate action report published in May 2020.

Climate Action Report 2 (2021)

In the new report, ArcelorMittal has for the first time announced a 2030 global carbon emissions intensity reduction target of 25%. It has also increased its European 2030 carbon emissions intensity reduction target to 35% from 30% previously announced. All targets are on a scope 1 and 2 basis. The company had previously announced a net zero by 2050 ambition in September 2020.

2030 target breakdown

The new climate action report provides a roadmap that illustrates ArcelorMittal’s current thinking on the journey to net zero steelmaking. Five key levers are identified as the stepping-stones to achieve net zero by 2050. These are:

1. Steelmaking transformation: In the course of the coming decades, the steel industry will undergo a transformation of the assets used to make steel on a scale not seen for over 100 years. This includes in a first phase the transition from coal (in the blast furnace) to natural gas (in a Direct Reduced Iron – DRI – plant) as a precursor to green hydrogen DRI.
2. Energy transformation: The energy used to make steel in future years will undergo a further and more radical transition, from high-emitting fossil fuel-based energy to low and zero-carbon emissions forms of energy. This includes green hydrogen, circular forms of carbon, and CCUS technologies.
3. Increased use of scrap: As well as using scrap in the EAF, ArcelorMittal will increase the use of scrap in blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steelmaking.
4. Sourcing clean electricity: ArcelorMittal will focus on increasing the amount of low and zero-carbon emissions electricity it consumes. The company plans to do this by purchasing renewable energy certificates and by direct power purchase agreements (PPA) with suppliers from renewable projects.
5. Offsetting residual emissions: There are likely to remain residual emissions for which either there is no feasible technological solution or the solution involves excessively high economic or social costs. For these emissions, ArcelorMittal will buy high-quality offsets or launch projects to generate high-quality carbon credits.

Click here to read the full press release.

Click here to download the report.

Text:
ArcelorMittal
Constructalia

Images:
ArcelorMittal

Report:
ArcelorMittal

Video:
ArcelorMittal

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ArcelorMittal Climate Action Report 2 July 2021