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Few other sectors have such a great impact on sustainability as the construction industry, in which concerns over the environmental dimension have been growing for some time. The sustainability assessment methodology presented in this paper is an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) based on Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) and includes the main sustainability factors for consideration in the construction of an industrial building (environmental, economic, and social), as well as other factors that greatly influence the conceptual design of the building (employee safety, corporate image). Its simplicity is well adapted to its main objective, to serve as a sustainability-related decision making tool in industrial building projects, during the design stage. Accompanied by an economic valuation of the actions to be undertaken, this tool means that the most cost-effective solution may be selected from among the various options.

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This paper presents a review of the most relevant articles on fire-resistant (FR) steels, as part of a research project at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) on the FR properties of steelstructures. An important characteristic of FR steels is that they maintain their mechanical properties at high temperatures better than the more widely used structural steels, mainly due to their special chemical composition and the thermal treatment used in their manufacture. The available information on FR steel tests has been analysed. All the data allow us to study the evolution of mechanical properties at different temperatures. We have, in particular, conducted a comparative evolution of the yield stress (YE) and the yield stress ratio (Ra) at different temperatures. A summary is also presented of the most important elements in their composition and the different manufacturing treatments of these steels and their influence on the initial YE and RA at different temperatures. For example, molybdenum and niobium improve the YE considerably at elevated temperatures. The alloy Cr-Mo-V-Nb is considered effective in FR steels and the use of boron is recommended, if an FR steelstructure is required to withstand temperatures higher than 700ºC and to decrease the percentage of carbon.In view of the temperatures associated with manufacturing treatments, it should be recalled that although accelerated cooling, such as quenching, increases YE at room temperature and at high temperatures, it reduces the Ra of these steels. The most effective thermal treatment is air cooling, although special attention should be paid to the influence of slab reheating and the finish rolling temperature.