A Holistic View of Sustainability, Resiliency and Recyclability of CFS Makes the Case for Building Greener and Long-Term Impacts of the World’s Most Recycled Building Material.
While energy efficiency and sustainability in building design has been a major focus in recent years for architects and owners, the manufacturing of construction materials is often overlooked. Organizations such as the International WELL Building Institute, United States Green Building Council, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design all play significant roles in the designation of sustainable building materials and finishes, yet quantifying what goes into the resources it takes to produce these materials is namely analyzed through embodied energy studies alone, which shed light on only half of the sustainability story and benefits. Life-cycle analysis, recyclability, resiliency and embodied energy, together, paint a fuller picture of well-defined benefits.
What is often overlooked early in the preplanning and conceptual phases of a project are the long-term impacts that materials have on a project’s sustainability, and carbon footprint. Cold-formed steel, being one of the most widely used and recycled building materials, defines a growing positive narrative of not only strides in reducing the carbon footprint during the manufacturing of cold-formed steel, but also the lifetime benefits and tremendous recyclability potential of this versatile material.