Green Home Improvement - Sustainable Building Materials

Planning to build your own ‘green home’? Have you been considering using

sustainable building materials? Are you confused about what makes a building

material ‘sustainable’ or wonder whether it makes any difference to use them

in the construction of your home?

The building industry to date has relied very heavily on using

energy-intensive materials that have huge environmental costs. It can cost

quite a lot to extract, manufacture or produce a building material let alone

transport and install it. Sustainable building materials on the other hand

are those that have the lowest possible environmental cost, having lower

production costs with less impact on the environment over their lifetime.

You can gauge how sustainable a building material is by evaluating the

amount of energy it takes (and the impact on the environment) to produce it.

Other factors that effect how green it is include how efficient it is in the

long-term and what it costs to maintain.

It’s possible to make a material more sustainable by recycling or reusing

it, reducing transportation costs, choosing alternative renewable materials

instead of non-renewable ones or using resources that have low energy

requirements. Using sustainable building materials helps the planet simply

because every aspect, from their creation, to their maintenance and disposal

has been carefully evaluated to have the minimum possible impact on the

environment.

There’s a fantastic array of sustainable building materials available today

for the eco-conscious home builder. Fly-ash bases bricks, baked earth,

bamboo, clay, wood harvested from sustainable forests, calcium sand-stone

etc. are some examples of popular sustainable building materials.

When you opt for choosing these materials you help in reducing the

consumption of non-renewable resources worldwide. Authorities estimate that

around 3 billion tons of raw materials are being used every year by

construction activities worldwide which works out to 40 percent of total

global consumption. (Roodman and Lenssen, 1995).

Aside of the impact on the environment using sustainable building materials

will benefit you as a home owner in many ways. It will help you to:

* Conserve energy in the long run since you will be using energy-efficient

materials in the construction of your home.

* Experience low or reduced costs related to maintenance and replacement of

materials over the building’s lifetime.

* Experience low costs with remodelling or space configurations.

* Feel the benefits in terms of better health since you will be using

renewable non-toxic materials.

* Be more creative with the design of your home.

So what do you need to look at to gauge how green a particular building

material is? Here are a few questions to consider:

1) Are the materials recyclable, non-toxic and safe for the environment?

2) How does this material contribute to the maintenance of the home in the

long run?

3) Is it possible to source this material locally? Is it easily replenished?

If you are working with building suppliers make sure that you specify your

desire to use local sustainable building materials or communicate that fact

clearly to your building contractor. You can also get really creative in the

design of your home when you use sustainable building materials. For

instance, if you live near the ocean, you could use stones and driftwood in

your home’s construction to give it a totally unique touch.

Using sustainable building materials not only contributes to a healthier

environment but also helps you create an earth-friendly home that’s a true

haven to future generations to come.

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