New FDES (French DEP) EcoSheetPile™ Plus

The first individual FDES ⁽¹⁾ (“Fiche de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire”) dedicated to steel sheet piles has just been published in September 2023 by ArcelorMittal on the French INIES database. The FDES covers EcosheetPile™ Plus (XCarb^®) sheet piles, which is produced with steel from the secondary route in electric arc furnaces (EAF) from almost 100 % scrap, and with 100 % renewable electricity (wind and solar sources) for all production phases in our plants.

The carbon footprint, which can be expressed in terms of GWP (Global Warming Potential), of A1-A3 modules (production) is just 368 kg CO₂-eq per tonne of finished product (ready for installation), which is around 7 times lower than that of structural elements produced from iron ore in blast furnaces.

The advantage of an FDES is that it complies with European and international standards, and the data is verified by an independent expert before being published. The declaration covers all types of steel sheet piles produced at the mills in Belval and Differdange (Luxembourg), as well as all steel grades, from S 240 GP to S 500 GP (new standard EN 10248-1:2023).

As public authorities aim to drastically reduce CO₂ emissions, the EcosheetPile™ Plus range should quickly find its way in the public works and infrastructure sector. Now French contractors, design offices and investors can compare in complete transparency the carbon footprint of an ArcelorMittal sheet pile solution (using the FDES) with other equivalent solutions in steel (using generic data) or other materials, through a life cycle assessment (LCA).

The EcosheetPile™ Plus FDES also includes information on the other mandatory modules

• A4 for transport from the factory to the construction site, which corresponds to a weighted average of all deliveries made during the reference year (2021),
• A5 for installation, whose data has been aggregated from data received from French pile-driving companies (whom we would like to thank here),
• C and D, which take into account end-of-life and the potential benefits (or burdens) of reuse and/or recycling of steel sheet piles, another considerable advantage of steel solutions.

Note that ArcelorMittal published its first EPD for sheet piling in 2011, and some others since then, but the French construction sector requires the use of EPDs drawn up in accordance with European standard EN 15804 and the French national supplement, which contains additional criteria.

You can download the .pdf file of the FDES on INIES (link), on our page dedicated to EPDs (link) or below.

For more information, please contact your sales advisor or one of our experts directly by e-mail (link).

⁽¹⁾ A French FDES (a French EPD with additional data about health) is similar to an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). FDES and EPDs are valid for a period of 5 years from the date of publication, except in special cases.