Hi Everyone:
A recent earth2tech blog post discussed a report published this week by NextGen Research entitled, “Green Building Materials: Cement, Insulation and Wood Products Help Engineer a Greener World.”
According to earth2tech, the report estimates that, “the global green building materials market will grow about 5 percent per year to reach $571 billion by 2013, up from about $455 billion last year. The sweet spots in this growth are cement, engineered wood and insulation products.” According to the blog post, the report defines greener building products, “as those having less of an environmental impact than standard building materials.” Pretty vague.
At $3000 a pop, I’m not sure how many of us will be buying this report, but feel free to check out the earth2tech post. Do you think these growth estimates sound realistic? Have you seen other reports (perhaps more affordably priced) that present similar estimations for growth? What are your predictions?
The price of the report, alone, should be reason enough to dismiss it, since it is obviously aimed at large corporate “innovators”.
But a look at the table of contents for the report makes it clear that it is analyzing the market potential of green-washed, not green, materials.
For instance, it includes manufactured lumber, fiberglass and foam insulation and cement among its “green” options.
Manufactured lumber has 15-80 times the embodied energy (and hence carbon footprint) of air-dried lumber. Fiberglass is an energy-intensive and carcinogenic material with little effective R-value. Petrochemical foams are pure energy and contribute significantly to the waste stream. And cement, in the form of concrete, is the most consumed material on earth after water, with major extraction and processing impacts and contributing substantially to global warming.
None of those are compostable or biodegradable. None of those would you use in your organic garden. None of them are green, and their market growth will contribute nothing to a sustainable (which, by definition, is a steady-state) future.
So why are we discussing this?
I think it is fantastic how we are using renewable energy and going green in so many ways. I think we also need to do things like reducing our energy usage, like installing geothermal heat pumps to replace high energy heating and cooling systems.
I think it is fantastic how we are using renewable energy and going green in so many ways. I think we also need to do things like reducing our energy usage, like installing geothermal heat pumps to replace high energy heating and cooling systems.
A really well written and reflective article, excellent thank you for sharing this.