Sharing London's steel reuse lessons at Circular Steel USA
19.11.2025
Written by Gary Elliott
Chief Executive & Founder
Elliott Wood was the Platinum Sponsor of Circular Steel USA 2025, which took place at the Miami Beach Convention Centre on 14 November 2025, as part of the final day of the World Architecture Festival.
Sharing insights from our latest projects, our team demonstrated how innovative circular steel strategies are transforming construction practices, delivering both environmental impact and commercial value.
From lifting entire floors to London’s largest commercial steel reuse project, Elliott Wood shares steel reuse lessons from London.
Not all steel is created (carbon) equal
Reused steel is steel that has been harvested from an existing building and used in a new project. According to the IStructE, the embodied carbon impact of reused steel is significantly less than Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) and Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) produced steel.
According to the British Constructional Steelwork Association, 99% of steel across the UK is recovered. 86% is recycled and 13% is reused. But to unlock the full low-carbon potential of reused steel, its use must be scaled. At Elliott Wood, we have two innovative case studies that are proving what’s possible.
Lifting two floors at 20 Giltspur Street
Thinking ‘inside the box’ at 20 Giltspur Street
In the heart of City of London, a former Bank of America site is being transformed into a modern, sustainable workspace.
The brief called for maximising the potential of the existing building whilst minimising the environmental impacts of the works.
“We were boxed in,” explains Elliott Wood’s lead engineer for the project, Daniel Bassett. “We’re next to St Paul’s Cathedral, so we can’t build up. There are tunnels and ancient archaeological remains below, so we can’t build down. And on either side, there’s a bank, public access, and roads — so we can’t build out.”
“Why don’t we just lift the floors?”
“The constraints forced us to think inside the box,” says George Georgiou, Director at Elliott Wood. “That’s what led us to the wildcard solution — jacking up the existing floors to create space for a new one.”
Thanks to early collaboration and open minds, the project is looking to achieve:
- 30% gross area increase
- 41% net area increase
- 80% existing steel reused
Structural embodied carbon (A1-A5) is 127 kgCO2/m2 (26.1 lbCO₂/ft²) compared to the 251 kgCO₂e/m² (51.4 lbCO₂/ft²) using the business-as-usual approach to demolish and rebuild three floors in new steelwork and metal deck slabs.
Octopus Group has agreed to pre-let the entirety of 20 Giltspur Street.
London’s largest commercial steel reuse project
At 30 Duke Street St James’s, Elliott Wood is helping a major London developer, GPE, reclaim around 1,500 tonnes of structural steel from across their portfolio.
Using steel from the reclamation, approximately 78% of 30 Duke Street St James’s structure uses reclaimed steel, making it London’s largest commercial reuse project:
- 67% is from the donor building
- 6% is from wider EMR stock
- Sourced from Cleveland Steel Stock, 4% of the steel is reclaimed, and 1% is recovered
“The stars aligned”
“Back in 2021, we had a presentation from Gary from Elliott Wood,” says Martin Quinn, Head of Project Delivery at GPE. “He brought the subject of sustainability — more particularly, circular economy — to the table. Are there two buildings where we could take steel from and reuse it in another? As it happened, the stars aligned between what was City Place House and 30 Duke Street, Piccadilly. And there was buy-in from the top down.”
“The biggest challenge on this project was the sheer quantity of material we were aiming to reuse. It was around 440 tonnes,” says Gemima Walker, Associate Director at Elliott Wood. “So all of that material had to be tested, categorised, checked for damage, and then incorporated into our design. But we had an excellent team on board with the right expertise to solve all the technical challenges along the way.”
30 Duke Street St James’s involves:
- Extensive retrofit investigations and the replacement of two existing buildings from the site
- The construction of a new steel-frame 8-storey office-led scheme with flexible retail and reception area at ground floor, over a single-storey basement with retained elements of existing structure around the perimeter.
- Industry-leading steel reuse. Approximately 78% of the structure uses reclaimed steel.
GPE has secured the pre-let of the entire office space at 30 Duke Street St James’s.
