The construction industry plays a critical role in tackling the challenges of climate change, carbon emissions, and resource consumption. To achieve a low-emission built environment, urgent action is required to reduce the carbon emissions associated with steel production and construction processes. Reusing structural steel elements could make a significant impact in this direction, but there are five key challenges to overcome: limited material availability, maximizing different reusable materials from demolition, lack of adequate design rules and standards, high upfront costs and overlooked carbon impact of the demolition prior to construction, and the need to engage and coordinate the complete construction ecosystem. This article described these barriers and proposed solutions to them by leveraging the digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The proposed solutions aim to promote reuse practices, facilitate the development of certification and regulation for reuse, and minimize the environmental impact of steel construction. The solutions explored here can also be extended to other construction materials.

建筑业在应对气候变化、碳排放和资源消耗的挑战中发挥着关键作用。为了实现低排放的建筑环境，需要采取紧急行动减少与钢铁生产和施工过程相关的碳排放。重复使用钢结构元件可能会在这个方向产生重大影响，但有五个关键挑战需要克服：有限的材料可用性、最大限度地利用拆除中的不同可重复使用材料、缺乏足够的设计规则和标准、高昂的前期成本以及被忽视的碳影响施工前拆除，以及需要参与和协调完整的施工生态系统。本文描述了这些障碍，并利用数字技术和人工智能提出了解决方案。所提出的解决方案旨在促进再利用实践，促进再利用认证和法规的制定，并最大限度地减少钢结构对环境的影响。这里探索的解决方案也可以扩展到其他建筑材料。