Cleveland Steel & Tubes is part of the Bianco Group of companies, which also includes National Tube Stockholders (NTS). The two businesses are located on the same industrial park in Dalton, North Yorkshire.
Due to its continued expansion, NTS required a new warehouse, and contracted Cleveland Steel to deliver it. Roy Fishwick, Managing Director of Cleveland Steel, decided to use this as an opportunity to explore the cost and carbon savings achievable through reuse.
Steel Frame
Roy utilised steel from a cancelled construction project for the portal frame of the warehouse, which he sourced from a third party supplier on the same industrial estate. This meant that the steel travelled less than one mile from stockist to site, reducing transport costs and emissions. The 500-tonne steel structure would have cost circa £750,000 if bought as new. After modifications, the total costs for the steel frame came to approximately £450,000, representing a £300,000 saving.
The NTS warehouse in numbers
- £650,000 saved in construction costs
- 51,000 miles of HGV transport eliminated
- 12,000 tonnes of soil donated to local farmers
- 20,000 tonnes of road planings used for foundations
Combined with the 96% reduction in emissions achieved through reuse, this project demonstrated that even basic structures such as warehouses can be built at a lower commercial cost and significantly lower environmental cost. The design of the warehouse means that the steel portal frame can be recycled at the end of the building’s life, further enhancing the environmental benefits delivered.
Flood Defences
The 12,000 tonnes of soil displaced during the groundworks would typically have been hauled off for reuse. Instead, Roy donated the top soil for free to local farmers all based within two miles of the site. The farmers used the soil for ground improvement and for building flood defences.
Based on pricing from the nearest available location of the nearest soil removal contractor, this represented a saving of more than £10 per tonne, equating to almost £150,000. In addition, each round trip by the soil removal contractor would have been 60 miles. With approximately 700 loads required to remove all the soil, this project therefore saved 42,000 miles of HGV emissions by donating the soil to local farmers.
It also benefited the local community. Dalton lies within a flood plain and is regularly blighted by flooding, so improving flood defences could play a major role in protecting the farmers’ livelihoods, as well as avoiding flood damage to agricultural and commercial land.
Further Savings
Instead of using quarried stone for the building’s foundations, Roy procured 20,000 tonnes of road planings generated by a nearby upgrade to a motorway. In this way the company reused an old road surface, which was removed before the road was resurfaced.
Using this aggregate from a local supplier reduced the carbon emissions associated with both excavating and transporting quarried stone, saving approximately 9,000 miles compared to using stone from the nearest quarry. It also delivered a cost saving of £10 per tonne, or £200,000.