Materials for Sustainable Sites Defined Ch. 1

Materials for Sustainable Sites Defined Ch. 1

-Construction has changed and new inorganic materials are being used, work is faster and cheaper, no longer using tradesman, and materials are no longer used from its regional area, but having then ship from long distance, using lots of fuel.  But the 21^st century needs to change its ways and think about the global climate, and ecological changes due to such carelessness, and adapt to a more advanced clean and organic way to build.

-Different materials have different shades of GREEN and depending on the material it will also use a different type of construction skill, which not all workers are skilled to do.

-“Materials and products for sustainable sites are those that minimize resource use, have low ecological impacts, pose no or low human and environmental health risks, and assist with sustainable site strategies.”

-Virgin resources are fresh materials that have never been processed or cycled

-Reducing structure size, adding on to existing structures, and reusing or recycling resources can reduce the need for virgin resources.

-Designing for deconstruction is when materials are designated as reusable and then constructed in a way that can be deconstructed simply and be used again.

-Using materials from renewable resources insure there will not be a depletion of the resource as opposed to non renewable which means that when it is gone…it is gone.

-Some companies have a take-back-program where the company will take its product back to recycle or repurpose after the customer is done using it.

-Some materials that are needed can’t be completely environmentally friendly, but can be made to minimize environmental impacts, like using sustainably harvested or mined materials, using certified (GREEN) woods, using minimally processed materials, specifying low embodied energy materials, specifying materials produced with energy from renewable sources, using local materials, and specifying low-polluting materials, specifying low-water use and low-water-polluting materials.

-Many manufacturing processes create toxins in materials that over its life-cycle slowly emits the toxins into the air.

-Some materials assist with sustainable site design strategies, like cement pavement, which is not usually desirable because of the high embodied energy, but over a long time help to cool the area around it to reduce the energy used to do the same affect.