The future of green materials

Source: Construction Digital

Date :07/05/2008 10:58:50

An Al-Gore inspired fervour seems to have prompted America’s conversion to sustainability and environmentalism. And with customers asking for environmentally-friendly developments, builders and architects are beginning to oblige.

By Rebecca Waters

Throwing away the attitude of the Bush Administration, which for years denied evidence of climate change being published by scientists, America’s residential construction industry is starting to go green. Rocketing energy costs and increasing water bills, to name but two, are just two of the factors owing to this.

And according to some, the concept of sustainability in building and construction has evolved over many years. “The opportunity to follow a green agenda has always been there,” says Helen Gough, Partner in the Building Consultancy and Environmental Sustainability team, King Sturge.

Evolution

In “Introduction to Green Construction,” Hari Srinivas maintained that the initial focus was on how to deal with the issue of limited resources and on how to reduce impacts on the natural environment, placing emphasis on technical issues such as materials, building components, construction technologies and energy related design concepts.

After all, traditional building materials were invented during a time when energy was cheap and the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment was not understood. The negative consequences of climate change demand a new approach to building materials, including cement, steel, glass and drywall that are ultra-sustainable, cost-effective and energy-efficient throughout their lifecycle.

One such company embracing this is Hycrete, which bills itself as a “green concrete” company. Hycrete, which makes concrete more sustainable, or easier to recycle or reuse is part of a small-but-growing field of green technology. America’s venture capitalists have noticed this trend and are pouring millions of dollars into companies implementing green construction techniques.

Funding

In November, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Serious Materials landed a second rounding of funding of more than $50 million (£25 million) to develop a new type of drywall which takes 90 percent less energy to produce and creates less greenhouse gas. The company’s first round of funding raised $3 million.

Billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is a leader in green investments and has given millions to several companies planning to transform residential construction. These include Calera, run by former Stanford University professor Brent Constanz; Soladigm, which will make electrochromic glass which can either reflect light or heat or can absorb them depending on the type of year and the needs of the building; and Living Homes, which builds pre-fabricated homes.

The company is also the first to attain a platinum rating under the new US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system.

Green building

Launched last November after a year’s trial, LEED is the benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It rates buildings on several criteria – materials selection, energy efficiency, sustainable site development, water savings and environmental quality. Depending on the scores buildings receive a silver, platinum or gold rating.

The National Association of Home Builders is also buying into this, and launched its own voluntary, fee-free Green Certification building programme in February. Through the National Green Building Program, the NAHB is helping its members move the practice of green building into the mainstream.

Environmental impact

The UK is also embracing this zeal, with the Government’s new mandatory rating against the Code for Sustainable Homes. Due to be implemented May 1, the code is effectively a framework to develop green initiatives throughout the construction industry.

“Building sustainable homes is about more than just carbon dioxide,” the Department for Communities and Local Government said in its guide for the code. “We also need to build and use our homes in a way that minimise their other environmental impacts, such as the water they use, the waste they generate, and the materials they are built from.”

One such company aiming to do that is Knauf Drywall, the UK subsidiary of Knauf, the multinational producer of building materials and construction systems. The Knauf Futurepanel is the UK industry’s first carbon neutral plasterboard, produced with the aim of taking “plasterboard into a new era”

Ian Stokes, Commercial Director, Knauf Drywall: “The market is desperate to buy into real green action for sustainable homes, and the arrival of a carbon neutral plasterboard makes it possible.”

Different approaches

With everybody buying into this “green action”, it appears that economic and social sustainability are just, if not more so, as important.

However, Green Construction adopts different approaches and is accorded by different countries, with widely divergent views and interpretations between countries with developed markets and those with developing economies. While developed countries such as the US and the UK are in the position of being able to devote greater attention to creating more green buildings by upgrading the existing building stock through the application of new developments, developing countries are more likely to focus on social equality and economic sustainability.

Regardless, Helen Gough believes that the acknowledgment is there. “I think all countries acknowledge the contribution that the building stock and its implicit energy use has on the environment; and are aware of the technology and principles behind it,” she says. “It is being driven in Europe to the new member states through legislation.”

Either way, selling green building can be difficult. The construction field is slow to change, regardless of whether a material is enviromentally sound. John Foddy, Head of Residential Planning at King Sturge acknowledges that there needs to be more effort to push these green initiatives. “There is obviously a need for strong supportive Government policies in the regulatory framework to develop green initiatives throughout the construction industry,” he says. While this is the case, he does forecast change across the residential and commercial sectors. After all, as he points out, “green is the future.”