Builder Magazine: At the 2016 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held October 5-7 in Los Angeles, Brent Ehrlich, products and materials specialist at BuildingGreen, Inc., presented the company’s 15th annual selection of green products that have the potential to change the way we build homes, infrastructure, and communities to better serve the environment around us. The Vermont-based resource provides guidance for builders and designers on green projects and evaluates products for sustainability.
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I’m not sure exactly what this article means by “eco-friendly” because when I think of eco-friendly I imagine those crazily sourced materials that cost a lot to acquire but are ultimately worth it in the long run. However, this article appears to be taking a new stance on eco-friendliness in that, while these materials have a low impact on the environment and seem to be responsibly sourced, they ultimately hold a longevity promise that common products don’t. Honestly, it seems actually very beneficial to promise longevity and safety when considering eco-friendliness because the act of replacing things that are broken relies on the creation of more of that thing, and if the original thing isn’t eco-friendly at all, you’re only doing more harm by having to replace it frequently. However, this new chemically treated wood can only be sourced as responsibly as wood today, its promise to last against weather and bugs calls for infinitely less replacing and repairing, which is eco-friendly, ultimately.
There are some really amazing innovations in this list, and some of them are relatively simple and unassuming as good innovations. I especially like the Accoya Acetylated wood that is stable and insect and moisture repellant because that’s really important for wood homes. You don’t want to have to replace the sides and walls in your home because they got eaten by insects or have water damage, and using synthetic materials is not as good for the environment for the production process and for the long term process. I wonder though, if this wood is cheap enough to see use on the every-day residential homes since it has what sounds like an intensive treatment. I also wonder about the price of the sodium sulfate battery. Not having lithium ion or lead acid in batteries anymore would really help the planet out, but from the picture, it doesn’t look like it could simply replace current batteries and the article says they are still expensive. I wonder how they are going to tackle that issue.
Seeing the progress being made in the architecture and construction fields is very inspiring to me. As someone who has seen and unfortunately participated in the wasteful processes of building and striking summer stock, I believe I come from a place of sheer relief when I express my excitement over new developments like these. While I hesitate to use terms like "revolutionary" or "game-changing" some of the features of these buildings are truly amazing.
For example, products ranging from the likes of Accoya Acetylated Wood (an environmentally-friendly strengthened wood product), to Aquion Low-Toxicity Batteries (which replace hazardous lithium-ion compounds and lead acid) the construction materials industry is making it harder and harder for irresponsible companies to find excuses as to why they aren't using environmentally conscious products. While some of the terms in this article may be a little unfamiliar to those without any construction or design background, I highly recommend reading this article, simply to see the super cool developments taking place in the construction industry right now. (This article is also a handy-dandy picker-upper, for those of us who become a little disillusioned with the constant disregard our industry shows for the environment.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about how to be green as a theatrical institution this semester (as consequence of me taking a class called Ecodrama) and I have mixed feelings about putting a whole mess of resources into building shows with green materials. Clearly it’s something that, as an institution that tries to minimize their environmental impact, would have a motivation to figure out, but it’s doing a lot of work to mitigate relatively little of the total environmental impact of the institution. I think it’s akin to ‘bleeding the stone’ on a show that’s 100% over budget, yeah there’s something to be saved there but it’s sinking a lot of effort into relatively little reward. If we want to really be environmentally responsible, it has to come through our facilities. The power consumption of the building to exist as basically a 24/7 structure is way more wasteful than the 4 large sets we throw out each year. Keeping lights in the building on 24/7, keeping the HVAC system on 24/7 providing hot water 24/7, that all makes a huge difference that is so much less tangible than building a set out of wasteful materials, but also so much more impactful. But that all being said, using green materials for a show isn’t a bad thing.
I love it when innovators come up with new compound material or new way of doing things that will help reduce pollution and industrial waste. These green products may not look "game-changing" but each of them plays a big part in actually "greening" the construction process, and the best thing is they are not decreasing pollution at the expense of weakening in their performance and functionality, which means there's a good chance that people will really consider using them, provided that they are not unreasonably expensive. The Accoya Acetylated Wood, for example, is not only chemical free, but it actually is more sustainable than a conventional type of wood.
It's probably believed among the theatre industry that we seem to be an active player in producing waste in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to using environmental-friendly materials. When there's limited budget and the optimal choice is expensive, it is understandable to choose the cheaper but potentially toxic one. I was wondering whether it's because we think the set, props, costumes we build are not gonna be permanently kept anyway, why bother?
The awareness of recycling has been significantly raised recently and there are theatres that rent out their sets for some profits and for longer use of the finished product. Eco-theatre has also been rising to stage front as more and more artists are trying to use theatre as the media to convey their care for the environment. The technical side and the artistic side of the theatre influence each other in an intricate way and I really do hope we are going to enter a greener era of theatre.
I think this article is interesting and has some fascinating ideas about green building. I’m not sure how many of these products directly apply to theater though. For construction of a new building I would certainly look into some of these products and methods. I’d be interested in knowing more about the acetylated wood. It seems like it could be something interesting to use in the theater – probably for the creating of stock elements. I do question the product’s ability to take paint, which probably isn’t something that the construction industry would be too concerned about. In the same avenue, I’m curious about how this product would take glue. One of the more interesting, and I think more useful in theater, products is the textiles. I never thought about the runoff from dying fabric. I know that there is a lot of fabric dying in theater and I think this is a great resource for anyone who dyes fabric for costumes.
With the basis of what I hope to be my thesis surrounds the use of green theatre, I’d be interested in learning more about different products that are created by greener methods, as well as perhaps finding an alternative to what we use in the theatre. It looks as though the products that were shown at this conference was more home based, and also meant to last longer than a simple show. The way we go about trying to build a show to be more cost effective in price, is not the same as being cost effective over the long run. Homeowners can purchase these materials as a one-time purchase and it will last them for years. This is where the problem lies for those in theatre. We have become so accustomed to working with a certain notion, using certain materials, that it is hard to change the way we think. What if there was a way in the design process, that limited a designer to work with certain parameters. Not talking about space constraints, but with the idea that their design choices were based on a green style of design.
This is all really, really cool, I only question why this article is necessary. If these products are really as good for the environment as the article says, and just as effective as their less-green counterparts, why are they at least not widely known if not widely used? Nothing against Builder Online, but I would feel like if these products are what this article says they are, then there should be an article saying extremely similar remarks in a more public news source. This all being said, there are some really cool products here. The battery especially interests me because battery recycling is dangerous and needs to be done carefully, but I wonder a few things about it. Mainly, I know it is less toxic, but what is the discarding process for the battery, and how is the battery life compared to similar — more conventional — batteries.
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