Eco-Friendly Recreational Buildings Begin with Steel
Building green commercial or institutional rec buildings means choosing construction materials with the smallest possible environmental impact. Steel framing is the recycling winner of all green building methods.
Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse
Conservationists rate preserving natural resources by three main methods: reducing, recycling, and reducing.
REDUCING: Choosing pre-engineered steel building systems for rec buildings reduces raw material usage.
Steel’s superior strength-to-weight ratio produces a stouter structure with far fewer building materials than other construction methods. Typical wood construction places framing studs 16” to 24” on center. Because steel is so much stronger than wood, steel columns are spaced 25’ on center.
Furthermore, steel structures outlast other types of buildings by decades, minimizing the environmental impact.
Red-iron steel framing creates much deeper wall cavities than framing with lumber. Filling the steel walls with top-grade insulation produces a snug, energy-saving structure. Consequently, steel-built rec buildings are cheaper to operate.
RECYCLING: No building material is considered green unless it is recyclable. No other structural product matches the recycling record of steel:
- Repeated recycling never reduces steel’s inherent strength. No other building material can make that claim.
- Steel is the most recycled material on Earth.
- According to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), over 80 million tons of steel are recycled in North America annually.
- The steel industry in North America has recycled steel for over 150 years.
- The Steel Recycling Institute avows that annual steel recycling saves enough energy to power 18 million homes for one year.
- Recycling steel is not only environmentally better, but also monetarily cheaper than creating steel from virgin materials.
- A typical recreational building can be built with steel reclaimed from 70-80 junked cars.
- Every ton of recycled steel saves 2.5 tons of iron ore, 1400 pounds of coal, and 120 pounds of limestone.
REUSING: Wood and concrete buildings end up dumped a landfill at the end of their usefulness.
When a recreational building created with steel reaches the natural end of its life cycle, the steel is recycled once again. The steel framing lives on as something else strong and useful: a bridge, car, submarine, train, washing machine— or even another metal building.
Environmental Experts on Steel
The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certifies green building projects. Using a point system, LEED rates construction projects. Because of its high recycled content, steel is the only building material boasting an automatic default score by LEED.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, “Steel as the primary structural building material, with its inherent recyclable nature and its efficiency of assembly, is the logical and responsible choice for Green Building.”
Healthier Climate
Wood buildings promote mold and mildew problems and invite termite infestations. People with asthma and allergy sensitivities may find mold, mildew, and termite treatments aggravate breathing problems. Steel is inorganic. It is immune to mold, mildew, and termites.
The more rec buildings constructed with steel instead of wood, the fewer trees wasted for lumber.
Live trees clean our environment, scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air and replenishing the atmosphere with life-giving oxygen. Sacrificed to produce building lumber, dead trees not only stop cleaning the air, they actually release their stored carbon back into the atmosphere!
A well-insulated steel building cuts not only utility costs, but also diminishes outside noise from infiltrating the building. That is another big advantage for recreational buildings, which tend to be filled with people engaged in noisy activities.
Constructing Green Rec Buildings
RHINO Steel Building Systems ships pre-engineered metal building kits all across North America.
Every RHINO order meets or exceeds all current local building codes for the lifetime of the structure. RHINO also strives to meet or exceed all our customers’ expectations for every project.
Please call RHINO today for helpful ideas, free information, and fast quotes. The RHINO number is 940.383.9566.
Build your next rec building project with the green winner of building materials: steel. Frame your project with a strong, durable, fire-resistant, energy-efficient, green RHINO steel building!