Six Environmentally Friendly Building Materials Coming Our Way

The way we transport ourselves ischanging; we’re growing our own food more and recycling as many drinks cans andmilk bottles as possible.
But what are we building with?Even the houses and flats we live in have to follow an environmentally-friendlyagenda if we’re to halt climate change before it’s too late. Let’s take a lookat some new-fangled (and some not-so-new) materials that we’re all going to beliving under before much longer.

We always think of beams as beingwooden, but the Steel Recycling Institute tells us that builders prefer to usecustom-made steel beams and panels in their newest projects. Steel is muchsafer in high winds and earthquakes, and a 2,000sq ft house needs at least 40trees as its skeleton. If you use recycled steel beams, you’re going to use theequivalent of six scrapped cars!

Steel isn’t the only metalleading the eco-revolution. Aluminium is also very recyclable and very light,and it’s finding its way into lots of buildings now. You could have analuminium roof on top of a house, an aluminium busbar in the electric wiring ofan apartment block, aluminium wall cladding… most aluminium you see in use hasalready been recycled, so it’s got serious eco-cred.

Concrete has gone in and out offashion over the centuries, but it’s currently in vogue thanks to itsinsulation and energy-saving properties. Some builders have started to use”cast-in-place” concrete walls that are cast in between two layers ofinsulation material. These insulating layers are then left where they are tocarry on slowing down heat transfer. This is a useful technique for makingbuilding blocks.
The Environmental ProtectionAgency fined the world’s leading surfboard maker for using a toxic compound inthe foam it used to form its boards. This company folded, leaving the way openfor a San Diego surfboard maker to develop a foam made from kelp, hemp andbamboo. This rigid foam has since been used in furniture, turbine blades,insulation panels and even surfboards! The foam has excellent insulationproperties, better than polystyrene or fibreglass, and it’s also very resistantto mould and pests.

Low E windows are coming our way,too. The E is for emissivity. These windows have a clear metallic oxide coatingwhich helps to keep heat inside when it’s cold and outside when it’s hot! Thistype of glass tends to be used in single-pane storm windows, and these panescost around 15 per cent more than regular glass, but when you think of the savingsto be made on heating and air conditioning (up to 20 per cent each year),they’re worth the premium.
Adobe is making a big comebackthanks to the fact that it’s free, there’s plenty of it and you don’t need totransport it very far! It also has an excellent thermal mass, helping toregulate temperatures inside houses throughout the year. The only problem isthat at present you’ll pay a small fortune for the guys with the know-how.There are also no established building codes for adobe in the UK or the US(although Peru, China and New Zealand have the right codes), so you could endup paying up to £50 per square foot. This could all change as this materialcatches on, though.

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