Sustainability overview
Steel is a versatile material which can be used for a wide range of applications, including white goods, cars and, of course, window frames. Steel is one of the most recycled materials in construction and new steel requires an element of recycled steel in its production process. The natural state of steel requires little maintenance and the process of steel recycling is straightforward, making it one of the most sustainable window materials:
- The steel gets picked up by magnets and melted down, meaning there are no complicated separating procedures.
- Waste from the manufacture of steel building products is easily collected and separated for recycling and on the construction site, steel products generate very little waste.
- Being so inherently strong, steel can be recycled infinitely without losing its innate strength and quality, giving it a high value as a secondary raw material.
- At the end of its life cycle, a steel product can be recycled and made into new products that are of an equivalent standard to the original material.
Steel is traditionally made using either the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) or the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) method; however, while the BOF route can only accommodate 35% recycled steel, the EAF method can accommodate 100% recycled steel. In the UK, the infrastructure is not available to meet the demand for recycled content above 35% so steel is instead currently sourced from Europe.
Clement Windows Group is committed to all areas of sustainability. We strive to minimise the impact of our business on the environment by creating sustainable products manufactured from recycled source material, elimination waste and pollution, reducing energy consumption, recycling where possible, treating our employees fairly and partnering with other sustainable organisations.
The steel used in Clement’s hot rolled steel windows, doors and screens comes from Montanstahl in Switzerland and is made using the EAF method meaning there is a higher proportion of recycled steel. Montanstahl is committed to sourcing its raw material at prestigious European mills that comply with high levels of recycling and where profiles in the form of hot rolled steel billets are manufactured with a very high amount of recycled scrap metal (typically around 98%). Scrap produced by Montanstahl as a manufacturer of steel profiles is sold back to a mill and then also used for recycling purposes.
It is important to note that steel is a low maintenance material and hot dip galvanised, hot rolled type steel windows will usually last the lifetime of the building they are installed into. This means it will be a long time before they will need to be replaced and the whole steel window cycle will begin again.
Recycled steel forms a sizeable proportion of the steel used to make Clement Conservation Rooflights too. This is currently being looked at with the intention of improving the overall proportion of recycled steel so that it is at similar levels to that of our other products.