Exploring the Unexpected Green Side of Traditional Building Materials
Construction is a foundational part of society. People will always need homes, businesses, schools and other buildings to live fulfilling lives. If you’re interested in the environment, it’s crucial to understand how that industry is helping the planet.
Traditional building materials can have a surprisingly positive impact on the earth, so learn more about them to better understand the work ahead to improve the environment long-term.
What Are Traditional Building Materials?
Traditional building materials are the materials people have used to form sturdy structures throughout history. Wood and stone are two necessary resources for building things like foundations and framing.
The limited raw resources disappear from the environment to make civilization function. The result is that 50% of the world’s carbon emissions come from built structures.
What Makes Eco-Friendly Construction Materials Different?
You don’t have to worry about the only person thinking about how construction isn’t eco-friendly. Industry leaders have been optimizing solutions for decades. Sustainable construction materials evolve with modern technology. They either utilize sustainable ingredients or upcycle previously used materials to minimize a project’s impact on the planet.
Sometimes, these materials are also more expensive. You’ve run into a similar issue if you’ve ever compared the price of a sustainably sourced product with one made out of synthetic ingredients. It takes more time and resources to stick with green manufacturing. Eco-friendly construction materials also cost more, but there are still some green factors to traditional building resources.
Ways Traditional Building Materials Are Also Green
Traditional construction materials sometimes get negative headlines, but that doesn’t mean your participation in the construction world will completely clash with your eco-friendly values. Check out how some of the most commonly used building materials have unexpectedly green potential.
1. Brick
People have made bricks out of clay, which requires a mixture of soil and water. Those two natural elements are essential for ecosystems. Although taking them out of the environment isn’t as helpful as leaving them be, bricks are one of the most surprisingly sustainable traditional building materials.
Environmentally friendly manufacturers power their brick firing facilities with green energy to reduce the CO2 emissions released by drying traditional brick. Bricks also last a long time. The drying process makes them more durable than many other materials, so construction projects using them won’t need more natural resources to replace them anytime soon.
Bricks are a sustainable choice because of their longevity, minimizing waste and resource consumption over time. Alongside bricks, veneers also play a role in durable and eco-conscious buildings, making them more attractive without requiring as much raw material. For example, options like luxury stone veneer from I-XL, provide a way to enhance structures with a natural look while using fewer resources than full stone construction. So traditional brick can be combined with veneer to create durable and efficient designs that balance sustainability and style.
Clay also typically remains on the earth’s surface. Manufacturers don’t need to dig too deep into the ground to get it, which means that there’s less environmental destruction compared to resources that require mining.
2. Concrete
Concrete is another traditional building material that needs sand, rocks and water to become a reliable part of any construction project. Those three ingredients are limited natural resources, but that doesn’t mean concrete isn’t eco-friendly.
The ingredients in each concrete brand’s product also differ. Those that prioritize the environment can substitute limestone — a limited resource — with waste products from industrial facilities like:
- Slag cement
- Fly ash
- Silica fume
Concrete also has a long life span, which makes it similar to brick. However, many construction companies use upcycled concrete. Their concrete comes from demolition projects, so it doesn’t require the use of any other natural resources for a new build.
3. Wood
Deforestation is often one of the first things people learn about environmental destruction. You likely see it all the time if you live in an area full of construction to accommodate the growing population in your city. Removing trees to create wood for new builds isn’t great for the environment, but there are expected green ways to still use wood in construction.
First, you have to consider the different types of wood available for a project. Cedar planks used to frame your future house will have much more of an environmental impact than using reclaimed wood from previous homes. Contractors are open to discussing possibilities. If you know what to ask for, they may find a way to accommodate your sustainable material preferences.
A structure’s primary material can also reduce its long-term carbon footprint. Wood naturally insulates a space because it has air pockets within its fibrous structure. You’ll likely need to use your HVAC less often in a house made of wood than metal. It ultimately shrinks your home or business’s carbon footprint because you’ll use less electricity to stay comfortable indoors.
4. Limestone
While innovations like interlocking blocks made with 90% plastic offer durable, recycled solutions for construction projects, limestone isn’t entirely out of the question. The naturally occurring mineral is a key ingredient in materials that need maximum strength, like concrete. It often appears in construction projects but requires destructive quarrying to obtain it.
The good news is that you don’t have to worry about your sustainable values if you’re using a structure that incorporates limestone. Check which quarry it came from. It may have come from a local drill site, which means it used far fewer fossil fuels to reach your building’s site during shipment.
Many limestone manufacturers also sell it with minimal treatments. It doesn’t need chemical processing because it’s naturally durable. The production may not have involved chemicals at all, preventing them from leaking into nearby water systems or polluting the environment after your building starts falling apart.
5. Slate
If you’ve ever saved pins of gray stone walls inside houses or dark gray countertops, you’ve likely appreciated the beauty of slate. It’s an impermeable rock that’s naturally occurring, but removing it from the environment doesn’t completely align with sustainable values. However, there are many green benefits of using slate in construction that make up for it.
Construction crews often use slate as a roofing material. Stone is an excellent insulator, so it maintains the internal temperature of a building well. It also reflects sunlight and the sun’s heat, which prevents your HVAC unit from constantly running in the summer.
It’s also a beautiful form of interior stonework. People don’t want to paint over the natural veins and coloration in their slate installations. That means the buildings don’t utilize the same amount of chemical-based paints as other homes or businesses. Their environmental footprint is automatically smaller.
6. Bamboo
Another alternative to traditional wood is bamboo. Construction teams can use bamboo for all the same purposes as cedar or any other selection of wood they’d need for a project. It’s the same type of material, but it has much greener benefits.
Bamboo grows multiple feet in one day, so cutting down a large swath wouldn’t cause the same drastic effects of deforestation in other areas. It replenishes itself quickly. Manufacturers can remain on the same areas of land and continually cycle through sections of their bamboo forests to maintain supply. There’s no need to expand into forested areas on a neverending basis.
It’s also a biodegradable material. It doesn’t need extreme chemical treatments to be a durable construction material. When a building needs demolition, the bamboo will break down into its natural fibers that don’t pollute the local environment.
Look Forward to a Future of Green Construction
Understanding how traditional building materials also have sustainable benefits makes the construction industry less daunting to anyone with green values. You can confidently work with contractors to build your future home, business or any other structure without worrying about the planet.
Enjoy modern architecture wherever you go. It isn’t always as harmful to the environment as people might think.
