6.6 Sustainable Design - Material Choice

 

 

6.6 Sustainable DesignMaterial choice

Impacts of material use outlined can be reduced in the following ways:

Design for less material useoptimising geometries can reduce the total amount of steel or concrete for example used in the building.

Source local Purchasing materials manufactured locally will avoiding high energy costs associated with transportation. As always cost will be the limiting factor, making it cheaper in the UK to get the steel from china than from Sheffield.

Use green building materials Innovative building designs make use of natural materials such as timber, clay, or straw bales. Not only do these materials have a very low embodied energy, they often have good insulation values. Examples of such building are listed in the further reading section. Also, using recyclable materials will increase the sustainability of a building project.


Figure 6.6.1 Principals and result of building with straw bales [see reference 8]

 


Figure 6.6.1 sourced from Simon Dale.net under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
http://www.simondale.net/house/straw.htm


Responsible Sourcing - For materials such as timber, a consideration should be made as to where the wood came from, and whether it is being replaced at a rate equal or more than that which it is being extracts. Responsible sourcing is demonstrated through auditable third party certification schemes, for example the sustainable forestry initiative or the FSC

Figure 6.2.1 Logos of third party certification schemes [see reference 7]


Figure 6.2.1 sourced from ORBEE under a Creative Commons Licences Attribution-Non Commecial-Share Alike
http://www.orbee.org/teaching-learning-resources.html?view=oerareas&expand=3%3A25