Material Selection
1stPOSS Services
When we think of the design and building of our homes, we often think of what will be used to construct them and usually that consists of wood or stone. It is at this point, the design stage, that we can address one of the most critical parts of our building and that is “building lower embodied carbon”. When you specify material with lower embodied carbon, architects, engineers and designers can take a key step in reducing the building’s overall climate impact. This is where reading the label, the “Environmental Product declarations (EPDs) and (LCA) “Life-Cycle assessment reports as they both contain data that can be leveraged to significantly reduce the greenhouse gases associated with these materials.
Taking an “holistic’ view of your projects design as well as the construction materials and making decisions not just on the good or bad on one attribute of the product.
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Sustainable Material Selection
From the beginning or concept stage, its’ time to empower your project’s design team, so that they will have a healthier, vigorous dialogue with vendors and suppliers about optimizing the benefits of products around all the environmental, social, health impacts and better understand trade-offs, you will encounter. Now is the time to consider the entire life cycle of the building, from extraction and manufacturing to transport, operations and maintenance- and eventually the end of life. The “life Cycle’ of the product! Remember that there is no such thing as a solely sustainable material for material selection, because it is simply more or less sustainable than the conventional alternative that is currently being used. In order for designers and architects to create ‘green buildings’ going forward for now and for future generations, greener building materials that are available to them, will be key to reducing and ceasing ‘climate change’.
Scope of Work
So, what is ‘sustainable material selection and how what role does sustainability contribute to the selection process? First, the simple answer is, “Sustainable material Selection” is the manner in which we choose the products to build our buildings and homes. It is a complex balance that aims to achieve or meet the desired design requirements, set forth by the designer and architects, that minimizes or reduces the environmental impact while at the same time ensuring and maximizing the product performance, all within the projected cost of the project. Not only are the material’s properties, ability to manufacture, cost and other attributes relevant to the eventual application of the product, but the environmental impact and its ‘life cycle’ also are equally important.
We, at 1stPOSS, encourage the use of more environmentally responsible product attributes, such as the ability to recycle and third-party certification, as well as products that are Locally resourced, sustainably grown, made from rapidly renewable materials, biodegradable, free of toxins. Also look for recognized environmental and efficiency programs like energy Star appliances rated, these products are not only ‘eco friendly’ and ‘sustainable’, but they make economic sense as well.
It is important to understand that ‘material selections and the building’s design, are key factors that significantly influence the building use and the building overall cost.
Sustainable Material Selection is a complicated process and working closely with your designer, architect and agent, as well as doing some research, will make that process less difficult. We are available to help here at 1st POSS.