Share your fav environmentally-friendly building tech!
We've all heard about solar PV panels, but that's not the be-all and end-all of technologies which could make buildings more efficient and less harmful to their environments. May I ask what else have folks got up their sleeves?
Dimensions of environmental friendliness
All good technical discussions start with a host of term definitions and context statements, so I'll attempt to start this one off on strong footing! I figure that anything which checks one or more of these checkboxes (reasoning included) works, but please feel free to colour outside of the lines -- this is just a kicking off point. Note that anti-ticking a checkbox is fine; everything has trade-offs, and sometimes paired solutions can negate each others' downsides. Magnitude is always a factor, too, since this field is rarely black and white.
(no need to bring receipts, mind; I'm sure we can keep this light hearted so as to avoid digging into comparative EPD critiques :3)
- Low embodied carbon (the kgCO2e emitted per a cradle-to-grave analysis (EPD, often) of a product),
- Low operational resource consumption (anything which works as well as an inefficient equivalent, but uses less energy/consumables -- LED vs. incandescent bulbs, heat pumps vs. nat gas furnaces, insulation vs. no insulation, etc.),
- Includes water conservation, too!
- Durability over design life (per the Canadian Wood Council (they're ... a little biased), the median service life of buildings is <90 years, so adjust amortization periods accordingly),
- Includes things like wildlife-urban interface-safe materials, as well as clay bricks and whatnot.
- Sustainability (if we can't do it for more than a century, let alone a few decades, it's probably not worth the sunk costs),
- Low environmental toxicity (no point trying to save the environment if it's all a toxic swamp afterwards),
- Supportive of local ecology (built environments tend to be biodiversity deserts -- cobblestone boulevards, brick walk ups, and tin roofs are hostile everything but pigeons and rats. Think native planting, green retaining walls, planted pavers, etc.).
(full disclosure: I'm probably going to borrow several of these at some point, so this is a half-discussion, half-I'm-outsourcing-my-research post 😅 hopefully that's acceptable ...)
I've been looking into this a bunch, so I'll cut myself off at three categories to avoid blowing hours on this. But it's, if nothing else, a nice opportunity to brain dump after all this time 😅 (and hopefully chat with interested folks about it!)
Structural
Landscaping
Water
Uncommented, because not able to focus, but interesting tech anyway:
This is more of an indirectly/adjacent environmentally-friendly one, but you may be curious about Passive houses.
Here’s a quite cool video showcasing some techniques which allow these houses to use little to no external energy while in use (so AFAICT this is mostly about after construction has finished).
I am indeed, thank you! I think the various passive house standards (passivhaus, PHIUS, etc.) are fantastic, and imo definitely fit in the "low operational resource consumption" category :D
A bunch of this has been getting folded into local building standards, too, which has been neat to see: British Columbia (Canada (we're up near Washington state)), for example, will require net-zero construction as of 2032, and has a progressively tightening building code to enforce it. I'm admittedly a little biased and would like to see more work in this area, since the passivhaus/PHI standards were first set thirty+ years ago now.
One example: the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) ran a contest to find/build a healthy home -- one that tried to push the boundaries and do the most ecologically friendly things possible. A Toronto house wound up winning: on an infill lot (i.e. splitting up an existing property in the burbs, basically), they managed to be net-zero energy (photovoltaics) and nearly-net-zero water (onsite water recycling), while also keeping the occupants healthy with good ventilation, a solid material palette, and architectural best practices. In 1992.
A bunch of research has been done into building super-insulating and air sealing residential homes, ensuring that they could run through the coldest Canadian winters, without breaking a sweat. We figured out construction best practices that could be built by any carpenter (with a little adjustment) and at a very low cost to the entire building (we're talking a percentage point of overall price, if even). In the 1980s.
In closing, as I step down from my soap box (sorry), I think that passive houses are very cool! We should absolutely do them, and then continue on to the next thing, since there's still waaaaay more work to be done :3
Thanks, there's a bit of interesting reading I'll be doing as a result of your list.
I may have more to say later but here's a quick couple:
Micropile footings Put a little steel plate on the ground and jack hammer pins through it. Call it a footing. I've used them, they work well, are very stable and are cheaper than bored piers. They work quite well on sites with a moderate level of floaters, unlike things like screw piles. There's more than one manufacturer, I've just linked to one product.
Straw building panels These are old tech, they used to be called Stramit panels here, I think the tech came from Sweden or something originally? Good for partitions and some other things. I wish they were more insulative.
Re. micropile footings, that's neat! I didn't realize it was a broad product category -- we have Diamond Piers up here, but I've never had any first hand experience.
I've been trying to add wee bits of additional links when people respond, but I don't have much else to contribute re. footing tech 😅 I suppose vibro-aggregate piers are an interesting solution to a problem I'm unlikely to ever deal with (they seem like they're only for relatively heavy structures, on relatively poor soils), but are an ecologically friendly alternative to tonnes of steel or concrete! Just a bunch of carefully placed aggregate in a hole.
Re. straw building panels, I'm super jealous! I was trying really hard to source something similar in Canada, but afaict nothing's on the market (without a crazy markup, and made out of hemp).
May I ask why it'd help for it to be insulating? I suppose I expected that they'd be e.g. 5/8" (15.9mm?) thick -- like gypsum boards -- and even replacing them with foam would only get you a couple of additional R-value in the wall assembly. Perhaps you're in an intense climate, and would appreciate every little boost possible?