Article Review "What Makes a Building Product Green"
What Makes a Building Product Green?
Recently my curiosity has been lit to learn more about what makes products “Green”. Information as come my way that you can put a “green” or “organic” stamp on something without having the legitimacy of really being green or organic. This article caught my attention, and discusses what makes a green building “green” and I was intrigued to discover more about what actually makes a product, or in this case building materials, green. This article is taken from Reed Construction Data under, “Market Intelligence, Green & Sustainable Construction”
A lot of these “green products” tend to be, in some cases, only nearly less toxic or more efficient than traditional building materials. These products range from cotton insulation, to recycled asphalt paving, to photovoltaic arrays. Even though they might only be slightly better than the traditional material, it seems to all add up in a big way with the larger picture of time and the positive effect in a global way. These green materials and processes fall into 6 categories; Green Process, Improved Sustainability, Recycled Content, Recyclable, Low Toxicity and Biodegradable.
The Green Process goes into what the impact is on the actual process of building something and who and what the affects are. There are considerations for the exposure of harmful chemicals to the workers. I find this to be extremely important, as there seems to be a vast amount of people who have developed illnesses from exposure to toxic materials. This exposure seems to have happened either in the building process, or in just being around the materials after they are built. This is a serious issue and begs more research to be done on materials that we are using and exposing people to. The green process of building demands looking at how much energy is used to create something, and opens up potential advancements to find and create new and more energy efficient ways in building. Because this falls under the category of using a green process, even a company distributing a harmful material into our environment, such as plastics, can receive a green building process stamp of approval, even though their end product is not at all very green.
The Improved Sustainability category calls for the use of the available and renewable products in the area. This is great because it opens up a new market of products and systems to build more sustainably.
The category of Recycled Content is wonderful because it addresses using recycled materials in the building process. There are so many materials out there that have been turned to waste, that have the potential to be reclaimed into a building project. The following category is Recyclability and is really an extension of this category and places in the need to look at the materials that you are using and if they can also be recycled for something else in the future.
Low Toxicity is the next section of how and what it means to “build green”. With the research now of the negative affects of toxic materials with people, all products are required to have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), which will list their materials and potential hazards. There is an issue with this rating system since most architects are not educated in how to interpret them. This is an issue since if you can’t read what the materials and hazards mean, then you wont be able to make the correct choices of using low toxic and hazard-less materials. It seems that reading these MSDS data should be a part of the education of builders and architects.
Biodegradability is another factor of building green and is the last step in the forward thinking of how to build green. Biodegradability addresses how well the material can decompose naturally back into the earth and environment under exposure from the elements. This is a incredible section to have to build green, as it forces the builder to look far into the future of the building and its contents uses, and how they will go back full circle to nature.
Reading these topics have helped me identify how to quantify the "green-ness" of the products used for building. There is, of course, a huge range of how something can be considered "green", however I now have more of an ability to address it and create my own opinion on how "green" something really is.
Melinda L. Phoenix
Review of article on site: http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/market-intelligence/green/green-building-products/
Recently my curiosity has been lit to learn more about what makes products “Green”. Information as come my way that you can put a “green” or “organic” stamp on something without having the legitimacy of really being green or organic. This article caught my attention, and discusses what makes a green building “green” and I was intrigued to discover more about what actually makes a product, or in this case building materials, green. This article is taken from Reed Construction Data under, “Market Intelligence, Green & Sustainable Construction”
A lot of these “green products” tend to be, in some cases, only nearly less toxic or more efficient than traditional building materials. These products range from cotton insulation, to recycled asphalt paving, to photovoltaic arrays. Even though they might only be slightly better than the traditional material, it seems to all add up in a big way with the larger picture of time and the positive effect in a global way. These green materials and processes fall into 6 categories; Green Process, Improved Sustainability, Recycled Content, Recyclable, Low Toxicity and Biodegradable.
The Green Process goes into what the impact is on the actual process of building something and who and what the affects are. There are considerations for the exposure of harmful chemicals to the workers. I find this to be extremely important, as there seems to be a vast amount of people who have developed illnesses from exposure to toxic materials. This exposure seems to have happened either in the building process, or in just being around the materials after they are built. This is a serious issue and begs more research to be done on materials that we are using and exposing people to. The green process of building demands looking at how much energy is used to create something, and opens up potential advancements to find and create new and more energy efficient ways in building. Because this falls under the category of using a green process, even a company distributing a harmful material into our environment, such as plastics, can receive a green building process stamp of approval, even though their end product is not at all very green.
The Improved Sustainability category calls for the use of the available and renewable products in the area. This is great because it opens up a new market of products and systems to build more sustainably.
The category of Recycled Content is wonderful because it addresses using recycled materials in the building process. There are so many materials out there that have been turned to waste, that have the potential to be reclaimed into a building project. The following category is Recyclability and is really an extension of this category and places in the need to look at the materials that you are using and if they can also be recycled for something else in the future.
Low Toxicity is the next section of how and what it means to “build green”. With the research now of the negative affects of toxic materials with people, all products are required to have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), which will list their materials and potential hazards. There is an issue with this rating system since most architects are not educated in how to interpret them. This is an issue since if you can’t read what the materials and hazards mean, then you wont be able to make the correct choices of using low toxic and hazard-less materials. It seems that reading these MSDS data should be a part of the education of builders and architects.
Biodegradability is another factor of building green and is the last step in the forward thinking of how to build green. Biodegradability addresses how well the material can decompose naturally back into the earth and environment under exposure from the elements. This is a incredible section to have to build green, as it forces the builder to look far into the future of the building and its contents uses, and how they will go back full circle to nature.
Reading these topics have helped me identify how to quantify the "green-ness" of the products used for building. There is, of course, a huge range of how something can be considered "green", however I now have more of an ability to address it and create my own opinion on how "green" something really is.
Melinda L. Phoenix
Review of article on site: http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/market-intelligence/green/green-building-products/
Labels: ~Melinda, Sustainable Building Class
posted by D.r.e.e.m. Reality @ 4:18 PM
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