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'It starts with the durable quality of new steel'

When it comes to sustainability, it is precisely in the application of steel in construction & infrastructure that great gains can be made. With the robust properties of steel, everyone feels that this material cannot, but must be reused. But then the questions arise. What is the Environmental Cost Indicator of the steel used? Where can you find the donor steel when you need it? And who can guarantee the quality of the donor steel?

Van Ee Steel Specialists from Barneveld, Gelderland, has been operating in the steel business for 45 years and has long been committed to making steel more sustainable. As a result, it has run into all the issues mentioned above. Nevertheless, it can now count itself among the forerunners in circular steel constructions. "Reusing steel whose history you don't know is difficult because then you can't say anything about its quality and you have to prove it afterwards through costly inspections. We have to eliminate that problem first," said Gerben van Beek, commercial director of Van Ee Steel Specialists.

Circular steel including monitoring

The days when government agencies and large clients controlled only the price of construction work are behind us. The environmental impact of the project to be tendered now plays at least as important a role. This makes clarity about the sustainable quality - both of new and used steel - necessary. "Within Van Ee, we started with the sustainable quality of new steel, which resulted in the start of our new company EECULAIR," Van Beek explains. "We purchase new steel from the most sustainable suppliers and then have designed the processing and preservation processes to be as sustainable as possible. Upon delivery, the steel elements are linked to a monitoring system in which the history of the steel is recorded. This way, every user can see whether a forklift truck has ever driven into it, whether the preservation layer has deteriorated and whether the fasteners have been applied correctly. Everything is recorded."

Registration and buy-back guarantee

The EECULAIR monitoring system makes the steel elements findable once the initial period of use is over. The steel - provided with an Environmental Cost Indicator (EQI) and history - is now registered in the National Environmental Database and can be found by parties who can redeploy the donor steel. If no new destination is yet available, Van Ee Steel Specialists will take back the delivered steel. "This is already regulated at the time of purchase in the buy-back guarantee we can issue," Van Beek clarifies.

Concrete steps

The approach is based on a long-term vision, but Van Beek sees that the time is almost ripe to achieve the first successes. Moreover, sustainability certifications such as BREEAM encourage construction companies to start working with circular steel. "With the use of circular steel you score high marks for your BREEAM certificate," Van Beek knows. "In addition, we see that permits do get granted by using circular steel that otherwise would not get through." The increasing number of transformations - factory buildings being converted to event venues and office buildings being given residential use - also make the use of circular steel interesting. "It feels right to encourage reuse and take concrete steps toward a fully circular construction economy. This no longer has anything to do with idealism. This is about realism."