Green, green, green. The term has surged in popularity so much it now occupies the ranks of other one-namers like Madonna and Cher. With this greater interest comes a flood of new products, each with often vague and cryptic claims about their greenness. Even a well-intentioned manufacturer can inadvertently make an inflated environmental claim about its products. Referred to as greenwashing, these exaggerated assertions range from tiny overstatements to outright lies.
But how do you separate fact from fiction when it comes to green qualities of a product or material? In this guide, become familiar with the life cycle of just about any product you’ll use in building or remodeling your home and take away a list of questions to ask manufacturers about their products. Finally, take a look through typical building materials and how to look at their “greenness.” After reading this guide, you’ll be able to examine the greenness of any material you want to put into your home. So, let’s start with the beginning: understanding a material’s Life Cycle.
Material’s Life CycleEverything — every material, every product — has a life cycle. A life cycle is the journey a material goes through during its entire life. Every material starts in some raw form, is processed, and is made into a finished product. At some point — five, ten, or dozens of years later — the material reaches the end of its life and is disposed of. (In fact, most construction materials end up in a landfill.)
If you were to map out the typical stages of the life cycle of any material — from its birth (production) to its death (disposal) — it would look something like this:
Phase 1: Production
The birth of any product begins with production. In this phase of the life cycle, products are created through a variety of methods, but all go through the following stages:
1.Whatever the final product is, some raw materials must be extracted to make that product. Whether they are mined out of the earth, cut from a forest, or mixed from chemicals, these raw materials are used to produce the final product.
2.The raw materials are extracted, grown, mined, or harvested in some way. This process of extracting, growing, mining, or harvesting the raw material is known as the supply-chain process
3.The materials are manufactured into their finished form, leaving behind unused materials.
4.The finished product is packed up and shipped, often great distances to a regional warehouse or local store, or even directly to the consumer.
5.At the construction site, the product is unpacked and installed. Depending upon the material, this installation may require adhesives, sealants, urethanes, or sanding. These typically contain harmful chemicals or require labor-intensive methods.
Phase 2: Usage
After the material is produced (see the preceding section), it’s finally installed and ready for use. ....read more
Share This Article
