6 Totally Cool Building Materials that could Save the Planet
It’s Earth Day! Not a lot of health care construction firms get excited about this event but it falls right in line with Carlton’s clean construction practices. So, our team vibrantly looks forward to this day.
Bricks made from Recycled Cigarette Butts
6 trillion cigarette butts are produced every year. In Australia engineers have a way to break them down and add them to clay bricks. It takes 58% less energy to produce these than to make traditional bricks.
Solar Cooling
Take energy from the sun and turn it into cooling for refrigeration and air-conditioning? Yes! It’s a small market but good things take time. The fact that it cuts energy bills in half may be just the boost this technology needs.
Recycled Steel
Less a thing of the future and more a current event, steel is the world’s most recycled material. In North America alone we use about 70 million tons of scrap every year to make this traditional metal in an untraditional method.
Bamboo
Architectural Digest says, when growing, it releases nearly 35 percent more oxygen and absorbs nearly 35 percent more carbon dioxide than most trees.
It may take years to grow cedar or pine trees but bamboo grows quickly making it nicely sustainable. It grows in many parts of the world. This stuff is tough too. It stands up to roughly the same tension that steel does.
Straw Bales
You thought these were old fashioned? Far from the farm, straw bales are terrific insulators for ceilings or walls or attics. They help structures stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. It’s simple to harvest and easy on the environment.
Recycled Wood
Let’s take a page out of the steel industry’s book. Recycling wood is a lot better for Mother Earth than harvesting new timber. If a structure comes down or gets remodeled that wood can be used to make interesting floors or beams. Good for design. Good for the environment. Good for us.
We may be the nerds of health care construction but this day totally works for us. Carlton Building Services looks forward to practicing our trade on a better planet. Hemingway put it this way, “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.”
Join the fight. Do something “Earthy” today.
EARTH DAY HISTORY
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“In days gone by, our country was politically less partisan. In the late 1960s Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a democrat recruited support from both parties and founded National Earth Day on April 22, 1970.The day has fostered numerous legislation that’s eco-friendly. In 1990 it expanded across the globe with 141 nations taking part. It’s now an international event.
A half-century of positive actions came from people working together for our planet.”
