Sustainability in Materials
We often get asked about the sustainable materials in buildings. There seems to be a broad public perception that sustainable materials are somehow out of reach - inaccessible to the average person. This is perfectly understandable; just go through the aisles of your local hardware store, and you’d think that every material that gets placed into a building must be made of highly processed petroleum products. It’s rather easy to forget that we’ve been building shelter for tens of thousands of years, yet fossil-fuel products have only been on the scene in abundance since the 1940’s.
We experience the same phenomenon every time we venture into a grocery store. In order to find the healthiest and most vibrant foods, we do best to look along the periphery of the store. Produce, fresh meats, grains, and other living foods are placed along the edges of the grocery. Along the periphery of the hardware store is generally where you will find the least processed materials for construction.
When considering sustainable materials, It’s helpful to think about the essential ingredients - akin to flour, salt, sugar in baked goods. These materials, though processed, have the least amount of embodied carbon - or smallest carbon footprint. In the building world, the most sustainable materials are made of plants. These are materials like wood, cellulose insulation, and other natural materials like straw and hemp. Next on the list come mineral - earth elements including lime, sand, and clay - can responsibly utilize local abundant resources.
Like healthy food, the simpler and more locally sourced your building materials, the better.
In New England, sustainable materials are literally all around us. Trees - locally processed into timber, lumber, and boards, are great sources of sustainable materials. Just like with local farming practices, local harvesting practices make the difference between a net carbon-storing piece of wood, and a net carbon-emitting piece of wood. It goes without saying that knowing where your materials come from, and how they were grown, harvested, and extracted, makes a big difference in the actual level of sustainability achieved.
Knowing your regional geology offers mineral richness that is often times overlooked in our modern construction methods. The one constant in New England is stone; it’s just about everywhere, and if you look at old barns and basements, you’ll observe that it’s been put to effective use for centuries. But minerals needn’t come in impossible-to-lift portion sizes. In our region, clay and lime deposits are abundant in certain areas, and rare in others. These minerals can be turned into plasters and natural paints. They also serve as mineral binders for plant-based insulation materials in your wall, floor, and ceilings. Finding the minerals that are abundant in your area is the first step when thinking about how to best use these materials in your building.
Does that mean that you need to know where your materials come from?
The short answer is yes. The more you know, the better equipped you can be to make intelligent materials decisions. But, you don’t have to go it alone. HempStone is here to help you find the best materials available in your area. We conduct research and testing of local materials and partner with farmers, processors, and manufacturers to help bring carbon-storing solutions to market. Before you select the materials for your next building, give us a call to discuss sustainable building solutions.