On a strip of land in northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle, a new facility taking shape could help revolutionize one of the planet's dirtiest industries: steelmaking.
By 2026, if all goes to plan, the site just outside Boden will be filled with industrial buildings painted white, silver and black – colors to reflect the region's mountains and lakes – and huge, brick-red towers.
This complex will be the world's first large-scale "green steel" project, according to H2 Green Steel, the Swedish company behind the multibillion-dollar mill.
Instead of burning coal, it will use "green hydrogen" produced with renewable electricity. The company says its process will cut carbon pollution by 95% compared to traditional steelmaking, and is aiming to produce 5 million metric tons of green steel by 2030.
It will mark another step toward overhauling the steel sector, but the path to cleaning up this polluting industry is a challenging one.
Steel is one of the world's most commonly used materials, critical for everything from buildings, bridges, cars and fridges to renewable energy infrastructure like wind turbines. The world consumes a huge amount – nearly 2 billion metric tons each year. The problem is steelmaking is incredibly energy-hungry and remains heavily reliant on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.
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📸: Mikael Sjoberg/Bloomberg/Getty Images | Peter Boer/Bloomberg/Getty Images | Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency/AFP/Getty Images | Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images | CNN
Developers and contractors will need stronger whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment, life cycle thinking in construction and life cycle cost discipline, backed by sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and verified low embodied carbon materials.
The shift strengthens sustainable building design, low carbon design and eco-design for buildings, rewards low carbon construction materials and supports a circular economy in construction. It also raises the value of BREEAM and BREEAM v7 pathways for net zero whole life carbon, net zero carbon buildings and better control of the carbon footprint of construction.
UK backing for Agratas’s Somerset battery gigafactory and ITM Power’s Sheffield electrolyser expansion supports the industrial base behind green infrastructure, electrification and hydrogen systems, all of which matter for environmental sustainability in construction, energy-efficient buildings and low carbon building supply chains.
Record solar output is cleaning the grid faster, improving the case for all-electric sustainable design and carbon footprint reduction in operations. The harder challenge remains embodied carbon in materials, building lifecycle performance and the wider environmental impact of construction. A weaker UK market leaves sustainable building practices, circular construction strategies, end-of-life reuse in construction and the broader task of decarbonising the built environment dependent on execution, resource efficiency in construction and resilient supply chains.
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