Production of metals accounts for up to 40% of all industrial GHG emissions. The most intensive of these, steel, is typically carbon intensive, accounting for significant amounts of global CO2 emissions in its production and transportation.   Many forms of steel are used in landscape architecture projects for a variety of uses, including reinforcing, fasteners, edging, planters, site furnishings, site structures and more.  

Strategies for reducing impacts include reducing the embodied carbon of steel through new low- and no-carbon production processes, looking for less carbon intensive materials substitutions for steel, reducing transportation carbon emissions, impacts from extracting raw materials, and materials reuse (upcycling) and recycling as part of the circular economy.  

Other metals are used throughout the landscape, including other alloys like aluminum, copper, brass, and other miscellaneous metals. These, along with information about finishes and coatings, are included in this section to offer additional information on making better choices in the landscape.  While minimal in landscape systems, technology also relies on several   rare and precious metals that have impacts in terms of resource extraction through mining.