Recession spurs requests for 'green' materials

By J.C. Carroll

(NC)Canada's housing starts showed signs of recovery in the first quarter- and even with a global recession lingering on, environmentally responsible options and upgrades are still in demand.

Last year, according to the most recent data, North America's 'green' residential building market was estimated to be 6 to 10 per cent of the conventional residential market, an 8 per cent increase over the year before. By 2012 these numbers are expected to double to reach 12 to 20 per cent market share, all of which represents a green building industry worth from $40 to $70 billion.

These days, however, the green motive may be less to do with cleaning up the planet, as it is to immediately reduce one's cost of living.

"Canadians especially, see the correlation between conservation and cost-cutting," says Todd Blyth at Nudura, manufacturer of the innovative, Insulated Concrete Form system. "High performance and sustainable building components pay off immediately with reduced energy and maintenance costs-and as importantly, green upgraded materials deliver a sound return-on-investment as the resale value compounds."

Nudura, well known for its concrete wall system to replace traditional building methods, has recently won four of the prestigious ICF Builder Awards, most notably for the multi-storey West Village student dorm in Hamilton, Ontario. West Village is also a platinum-rated project by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Due to its third-party certification program, LEED has created an international benchmark to encourage the construction and operation of high performance sustainable buildings-and the platinum rating is as good as it gets.

West Village builders, for example, opted for Nudura walls, a method that entails interlocking forms with two layers of polystyrene, steel reinforced, and filled with concrete. "Concrete, instead of traditional building methods, for public buildings and homes is far stronger, more efficient, and healthier - and it does not deplete our forests of natural resources," Blyth explains. "This greener method builds the walls to the roof with a form that has two layers of polystyrene and is then steel reinforced and filled with concrete. It cuts down construction time significantly, creates less waste material, and it virtually eliminates mould, mildew, and other toxic emissions that are associated with traditional building methods. The homeowner saves immediately, due to durability and energy efficiency and with a potential to reduce energy costs of up to 70 per cent. Better still, the entire structure is reported to be up to nine times stronger, with far more fire protection, far more sound insulation, all of which leads to very promising equity growth for resale. Green construction options pay off swiftly and permanently."