Citation: Broniewicz, E.; Dec, K. Environmental Impact of Demolishing a Steel Structure Design for Disassembly. Energies 2022, 15, 7358. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en15197358 Academic Editor: Przemyslaw Brzyski Received: 31 August 2022 Accepted: 29 September 2022 Published: 7 October 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). energies Article Environmental Impact of Demolishing a Steel Structure Design for Disassembly El˙ zbieta Broniewicz * and Karolina Dec Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland * Correspondence: e.broniewicz@pb.edu.pl Abstract: The encouraging Design for Disassembly appears in the literature more and more often. Such a design appears to offer clear environmental advantages. However, there are still not enough research results to support the existence of these benefits. The authors using the Life Cycle Assessment method, which assesses the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during the demolition and operation of steel structure. Steel is completely recyclable and, in terms of tonnage, is the most recycled material worldwide. We assessed three scenarios: (1) complete re-remelting (recycling) of the structure; (2) partial reuse of construction elements + remelting (recovery + recycling); and (3) complete reuse of the structure (recovery). GaBi software was used for the analysis. It was found that the environmental impact varied significantly among the examined scenarios. The first scenario poses the greatest environmental burden. However, compared to Scenario no. 1, Scenario 3’s environmental impact is more than 70% lower. Keywords: DfD; life cycle assessment; energy savings; global warming potential 1. Introduction The construction industry is responsible for a significant proportion of anthropogenic environmental impacts. In 2015, it accounted for 38% of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, which, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, decreased to 37% in 2020 [1]. Although the recovery rate of construction and demolition waste in the European Union countries reaches almost 90%, this rate includes waste that is prepared for reuse, recycled or materially recovered, and waste that is used to fill excavations [2]. These unfavorable statistics have prompted interest in research to investigate the construction industry’s environmental impact on various aspects (materials, processes). The most comprehensive study at the current knowledge stage analyzes the energy consumption and emissions of buildings over their lifetime, i.e., using Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). This paper aims to investigate the differences in environmental load in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP) and primary energy consumption in the processes of demolition and reuse of a steel structure. Three scenarios were assessed: (1) recycling of the whole structure; (2) reuse of parts of the structural elements and recycling of the remaining steel scrap; and (3) reuse of the whole structure (designed for reuse). An LCA method was applied using GaBi software. This study is based on typical construction and demolition practices and steel waste management. 1.1. Design for Disassembly The idea of Design for Disassembly (DfD) is relatively new and emerged in the 1990s [3], mainly to be able to recover the materials and components used in construction. At the same time, such a design ensures a reduction in the amount of waste to be managed after the decommissioning process. This strategy is based on the fact that most building structures have a limited useful life, and each structure is a depository of natural resources. Energies 2022, 15, 7358. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15197358 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies