HTS+ Reuse of Steel

In 2019 Grosvenor set out ambitious environmental targets, becoming oneof the first real estate companies to commit to achieving net zero carbon across their directly managed portfolio by 2030, and net zero embodied and operational carbon across the entire portfolio by 2050. Over the past year we have beenworking closely with Grosvenor to develop designs that maximise structural steel reuse across their portfolio of projects.

Holbein Gardens is the refurbishment and extension of an existing 1980s office building with sustainability at its heart. 93% of the existing building fabric has been retained and the new two storey extension is a hybrid construction of engineered timber and reused steel. The proposed steel and CLT extensions will incorporate 11 tonnes of existing steelwork found onsite as well as steel sections taken from demolition sites across the Grosvenor portfolio.

Steel sections reused in this way have around 1/8 the embodied carbon of traditionally-sourced steel. The project successfully demonstrates how circular economy principles can be applied to projects in practice, and if scaled up could make a significant improvement on embodied carbon for steel frame construction.