Modern Steel Construction • June 2021 • EDITOR’S NOTE

One of the few advantages of getting older is you tend to know more and more smart people.

The other day, I was complaining to Tom Scarangello, the executive chairman of Thornton Tomasetti, about some comments some of his colleagues had recently made that sounded like an unfair comparison of wood vs. steel. Tom listened politely for a few minutes before subjecting me to some well-deserved keelhauling.

In no uncertain terms, Tom reminded me that I represented steel, one of humankind’s most significant inventions and should stop whining and nitpicking claims regarding other structural materials. Instead, I should be shouting from the rooftops about what the steel industry is doing to address the issues of climate change and embodied carbon and (as I put it) how freakin’ amazing steel is. So here goes:

• Steel’s unparalleled combination of strength and ductility make it America’s leading structural material. The result is longer spans and larger column-free spaces, smaller beams and columns and less expensive foundations, and the highest-performing seismic systems. Steel’s long spans and fewer columns mean more leasable space, easier retrofitting and remodeling, and more attractive interior designs. When you consider cost, flexibility, and resilience, steel’s performance is simply unmatched.

• Steel is the most environmentally friendly structural material. American-made wide-flange shapes are the only structural material that can claim a recycled content greater than 93% and a 100% ability for recycling. Just as important, steel can be recycled over and over with no loss of material properties. Today, the embodied carbon attributed to steel comes almost entirely from the power grid in the form of the electricity used for steel production. Fortunately, as America turns increasingly to sustainable energy production, steel’s carbon footprint will continue to shrink.

• Steel is beautiful. Every architectural aficionado owes it to themself to take a pilgrimage to the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel in Bella Vista, Ark., to see one of the world’s most beautiful buildings (or check out the February 1990 issue of Modern Steel Construction). And of course, the Cooper Chapel isn’t alone. The pages of this magazine are filled with incredibly beautiful steel structures. Exposed steel has become so commonplace that the AISC Code of Standard Practice now has AESS standards with five levels to help designers and fabricators select the appropriate appearance and associated level of work.

• Steel is fast. Because steel buildings can be completed faster than other structures, steel saves owners money on construction loans while generating cash flow sooner when the buildings open earlier. And you get this speed while still having the tightest tolerances of any structural material.

As the discussion wound down, Tom encouraged me to read Bill Gates’ latest book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, and think about how steel fits into the future. Fortunately, that was easy. One of Gates’ key points is that the cement and steel industries contribute more than 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. He correctly points out that our future depends on cutting emissions and calls for the production of cleaner iron ore that can be used as feedstock for modern, clean, electric-arc furnaces to produce steel rather than using older, dirtier integrated steel mills.

Although climate change is a global problem, fortunately, America’s structural steel industry began realizing Gates’s dream in 1987. Today, all of the more than 4 million tons of wideflange produced in the United States comes from electric-arc furnaces. As a result, rather than depending on iron ore, more than 93% of the raw material comes from scrap and the main carbon emissions are from generating electricity, not from producing iron ore and coke.

Steel really is freakin’ amazing—and I hope you all will help me remind everyone else, too!