Stadium-arena

Building a circular future for the construction industry

We are adopting a holistic life cycle model

"We have been actively working towards sourcing raw materials responsibly, reducing waste, increasing recycled content in products and enhancing end-of-life solutions. 

With the construction industry expanding rapidly, there is a strong need to address its impact on the environment. It is important now more than ever to adopt a more sustainable approach by switching from a linear to a circular economy."

Tuovi Palojärvi, Sustainability Manager at Ruukki Construction

Building long-lasting, durable products

We have been consciously working to improve material efficiency in our products and solutions by adopting a holistic life cycle model. We source our raw materials responsibly, reduce the amount of production waste, increase the use of recycled materials in production. We also design our products in such a way that the minimum amount of waste generated on-site and end-of-life demolition waste can be efficiently recycled.

Thanks to premium steel and coatings our steel-based building products are both light and long-lasting, with guarantees of up to 50 years. This reduces the need for maintenance and use of new materials, helping to reduce associated lifecycle emissions.

 

Working towards responsible and local sourcing

It is of paramount importance to choose materials that are produced locally to reduce emissions from transport. For example we source our steel mainly from our parent company SSAB. SSAB's steel is made energy-efficiently  from Nordic iron ore having carbon footprint less than the that of world average. Using HYBRIT® technology, SSAB aims to replace coking coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steelmaking, with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. 

 

Using recycled material in our building products

We look at waste products more as an opportunity —  recycled material is an important component in the production of our building products: 

  • About 20% of Nordic SSAB steel used in our products is recycled including internal scrap
  • Early in 2024 we started introducing 100% recycled steel - SSAB Zero - for our building products
  • Over 70% of the weight of the Ruukki Life panel insulation is made of recycled glass 
  • Our own PIR-formulation contains a raw material that uses 50% recycled PET

 

Reusing production scrap as raw materials

Our processes have been developed to reduce and effectively utilize waste materials generated in production. Steel scrap from production has traditionally already been used in steel mills to replace iron ore in production. Using recycled steel significantly reduces emissions compared with conventional ore-based steel production. Read more about Ruukki® LowCarbon products.

The insulation waste from our sandwich panel production in Alajärvi and Oborniki is being used to make blown wool for buildings or as raw material for new mineral wool. The waste from the production of finished panels — the steel and insulating parts — can also be recycled.   We are also continuing to develop the recovery of other production waste - for example using the insulation waste from PIR production as a raw material for other products.

 

Supporting reuse and recycling at end-of-life

We believe in finding a use for our building products beyond the life cycle of the structure. Our façade products and roof load-bearing profiled panels can be dismantled and reused for new projects. Here’s an example of how it works:

  • Sandwich panels and load bearing steel sheets can be removed from building frames and reused in the case of temporary or other short life span buildings.
  • We are working on developing methods for evaluating the end-of-life value of structures through the PROGRESS project we have initiated with the EU
  • Changes in regulation may further facilitate the reuse of building products

Finally, in the end of life of metal products, the value is still there:

  • Over 90% of metal from construction demolition is recycled
  • Metal recycling not only save significant abiotic resources but also 60% to 95% of energy compared to primary production
  • The metallurgical properties of steel allow it to be recycled continually with no degradation in performance, from one product to another
  • The high value of steel scrap means that end-of-life steel products can retain economic value and potentially generate income through recycling
  • Because steel facing is protecting the insulation material in sandwich panel, it makes easier to recycle also the insulation materials instead of landfilling 

Our life-cycle approach

We take material and energy efficiency into account across all product lifecycle phases and continuously work to improve material circularity. This starts with careful raw material selection and continues through efficient manufacturing and logistics, fast and safe installation, and the building use phase, where we focus on people's wellbeing, energy efficiency and product longevity. Steel-based products are also 100% recyclable in the end of life of the building and not forgetting reusability that can reduce future buildings carbon footprint.  

Learn more about material circularity and our life-cycle approach

Interested in hearing more about our approach? Please fill in the form and we will contact you shortly!

Sending us a contact request form, you help us connect you with one of our Ruukki representatives or a trusted Ruukki partner, to whom we’ll forward your details. Please fill in the contact request form below, and you will hear from us as soon as possible. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Why we are collecting and processing personal data? Please check our  Privacy Statement.