Did you know that buildings account for 40% of annual global CO2 emissions? Due to the building materials, construction methods, and ongoing functional needs, infrastructure expels a lot of pollution into the environment.
In our era of rising global temperatures and extreme weather patterns, it’s more important than ever to consider your environmental impact. Green building can offset some of the impacts that we create.
The goal of green building is to create sustainable and environmentally friendly infrastructure for ourselves and our families as well as generations to come. We want to build comfortable and healthy indoor and outdoor environments with the smallest environmental impact we can. We do this by using green building materials.
Green building materials are composed of renewable and environmentally responsible resources. Carbon impacts are measured over the lifetime of a product, so it not only matters what the material is, but the resources used to obtain, produce, and provide to consumers. Doing a little can do a lot when it comes to building green.
If you have a construction project coming up and are thinking about how you can make a positive impact on the environment and your community, we can help.
Read on to learn more about 10 green building materials you can use.
Bamboo is one of the most readily available resources in the world. In addition to being incredibly strong and durable, it’s also very easy to grow.
One of the benefits of bamboo is that it has a tensile strength greater than steel and can also withstand compression better than concrete, making it a useful substitute for anything wooden or structural.
It can grow in almost any climate, is cheap to produce and harvest, and is lightweight and easy to transport. Different species of bamboo have different needs, so it is very easy to plant in varying climates. The only downside to bamboo as a construction material is that it needs to be treated in order to resist bugs and decomposition.
Hemp is another great option for eco-friendly building materials. Like bamboo, it can be grown easily in abundance. While it isn’t ideal for weight-bearing and structural uses, hemp can be used as insulation and has great sound-dampening properties. This makes hemp ideal for walls.
The great thing about using hemp as a filler is that it doesn’t burn, doesn’t form mold, and rodents and other vermin avoid mixtures using hemp.
Hemp material also has an ionizing effect that can remove fine dust, fungi, and bacteria from the air. It can regulate humidity and has a slight pleasant scent. It is also completely renewable and biodegradable and grows 50 times faster than trees.
In addition to all the wonderful things listed above, hemp also absorbs CO2 at a very efficient level. Hemp can breathe in 4 times more CO2 than trees, which leads to a CO2 negative impact.
So not only is hemp a great building material, but the farming of hemp also helps offset the carbon in the atmosphere.
Sand is the most used natural resource in the world. Dating to as early as 6000 BC, sand has been used throughout the world for buildings and infrastructure. Clay buildings were coated in layers of sand and limestone that chemically reacts with the clay to form a very strong mixture that can be as strong as cement.
Nowadays, different grains and shapes of sand can be used for many different purposes. Sand is used for making bricks, creating composite roofing tiles, water filtration, and other materials in the petroleum and hydrocarbon industry.
Cork is often used as an insulator and comes from the bark of cork trees. A fascinating fact about cork is that it can be harvested without killing the tree and grows back quickly. This makes cork a great green material in building.
Cork is known for its flexibility, resilience, and resistance to wear and, in addition to insulation, can be used to make floor tiles. Its porosity can also make it resistant to mold and mildew.
The downside about cork is that it can be expensive. Cork trees only grow in the Mediterranean and northern Africa, which makes the material harder to come by than other natural fibers like hemp and bamboo.
Natural clay is another abundant, affordable, readily-available, and non-toxic alternative to cement. Clay concrete hardens quickly and can be used to build floors and non-load-bearing walls. Clay concrete (as opposed to cement) is 2.5 times cheaper and almost 20 times better for the environment.
It is also fire resistant and excellent at insulating, so it makes for a great alternative for plasters.
In addition to cork, hemp, and bamboo, there are an abundance of other natural fibers to be used in the building process.
Cotton, wool, jute, and wood can be used at all stages of the building process. You can use fibers for insulation, roofing, flooring, wall panels, furniture, and more.
The downside for natural fibers is that they’ll need to be treated in order to ward off bacteria growth.
Ashcrete is an alternative to concrete. Concrete itself is one of the most destructive materials on earth, so any alternative to cement concrete will automatically help lower your own footprint.
Ashcrete is made using fly ash, which is a byproduct of coal when it is burnt. Typically, fly ash is disposed of in landfills or in bodies of water, which contaminates the groundwater and releases greenhouse gases.
Utilizing ashcrete in your building process can help combat concrete’s carbon footprint and lower energy consumption.
Timberecrete is another alternative to concrete and is made from a mix of sawdust, concrete, and water. It has excellent thermal insulating properties, is lighter weight than traditional concrete, and has an easier workability.
While it still uses concrete in the mixture, it has a lower carbon footprint than traditional concrete. Composite concrete is a technology that’s been used for thousands of years in all kinds of buildings.
Speaking of composite materials…
We’ve talked about different ways to mix concrete to lower your impact on the environment, but there are also a ton of different ways to combine materials for other purposes.
You can mix natural fibers together to get composite materials that are light and act as an insulator. Composite materials, such as bamboo fiber reinforced polymer, wood-plastic composites, and hempcrete, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can replace steel and other structural materials.
Using composite materials is also a great way to upcycle previously used building materials.
Upcycled materials are arguably the easiest to obtain and are a great option for the environmentally conscious.
These materials can include old tires, plastic, building scraps, steel, wood, glass, and so much more.
During deconstruction, housing and building materials can be saved and sent to ReStores to be sold again for future use. It’s not just raw lumber either, it can be cabinets, doors, handles, and other materials.
Using these materials helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from producing, packaging, and transporting new products and conserves raw materials.
In fact, using recycled steel can do a lot for your environmental impact. A 2000 square-foot home requires 50 trees to build, but using steel framing from recycled steel only needs the equivalent of 6 scrapped cars.
In our fast-growing society, it is important now more than ever to take care of what we put out into the environment as well as what we take away from it. Using goods that can be easily produced and replaced goes a long way toward building a more sustainable future.
You can reduce your impact by asking your contractor or local material supplies store about their green building options.
Here at Discount Dumpster, we work hard to manage our carbon footprint and keep track of our impact on the environment. From efficient truck routes to recycling initiatives, we help our customers and community stay clean while also caring about the future of our earth.
For your next construction project, give us a call to see how our dumpster rentals can help you build greener. We have several sizes that help you get rid of what you need without multiple trips to the landfill. We’ll fit you in on our schedule in the most efficient and effective way possible.
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