Green: It's Building™

An iPod, a Lump of Coal, and Replaceable Trees

If you look across all the green building standards and product-certification systems, one consensus principle that repeatedly comes up is the use of products that are “sustainable.”

A sustainable product lowers pressure on the environment through the use of source materials that are renewable and/or sustainably harvested. The term “sustainably harvested” means the product, or the product’s components, are harvested in a way that doesn’t permanently deplete the source of the material, nor poison or ruin the surrounding area, nor—in detailed analysis—pollute the air on its way to market.

That’s a fairly academic description, so let’s take a practical example. I have an iPod and I suspect you do too. A green product? You bet! By downloading songs off the Internet, I help reduce pollution, because a download avoids the production and shipping of CDs and plastic boxes, and the printing of liner notes. The iPod is green in its application. 

But is the product “sustainable” if the iPod is made in a filthy plant in China and powered by coal generating plants here in the U.S.? In other words, does the manufacture and power generation for the seemingly green iPod poison the air we all breath? In fact it does, thereby ruling the iPod out as a truly sustainable product, its green properties notwithstanding. If you were to power the iPod with hydro or solar, and ensure that the factories are well-run, you’re talking green and sustainable. See the difference?

Let’s take a remodeling example. Consider a high-performance caulk. Let’s say it’s a high-VOC product that is nasty to use because of the fumes. That caulk can be very green indeed, if it stops air infiltration, keeps out moisture, and cuts down on energy costs and mold. But is the product sustainable if the manufacturing process is poisonous? Or if the product risks the health of the contractors, or the occupants who must smell it before the fumes cook off, when they first move in? 

No. So, something can be green in its ultimate application but not sustainable in its manufacture and initial use.

• Performs as a green product
• Has low or no toxicity, and
• Is manufactured in a sustainable manner

That said, sometimes, for lack of choice, you may choose to make a trade off. You pick a product that isn’t very sustainable during production, but is very green in its application. Take a highly durable, high-VOC floor finish. It’s very green in its application and use – because the floor doesn’t have to be stripped and refinished as often – but it’s probably not sustainably manufactured, because the high VOCs contribute to smog and other problems. In this situation, you have to look at the life cycle analysis of the product, and make a judgment of the greenest way to go, on balance. 

Take wood for another example. Wood is clearly a very green building product, but it’s only sustainable if the company that harvests the wood has a sustainable forest plan that doesn’t deplete the source forests, over time and on balance (FSC lumber / FSC wood: FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests). Tropical lumber may be very green because of the durability, but not sustainable if harvested in destructive ways. Some pressure-treated lumber products, such as ProWood Micro, use a treatment process which has received Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) status.

So, for green purists (and that’s a growing number of people) making the judgment of what to use takes research not only of the properties of the product, but of the corporate practices of the manufacturers. If the data is correct, this is a judgment that Americans are increasingly willing to take time for, as they increasingly vote with their dollars for products that are both green and sustainable.

We are seeing some real innovation with wood treatments these days; whether it’s wood for decking, siding, or part of the structural frame. At the root of this topic is the fact that, when left untreated or when unprotected, wood can rot. Even premium species like cedar and redwood—which are naturally decay- and rot-resistant—require treatment to extend their useful lives.

Today’s wood treatments range widely from chemical treatments to heat treatments (a.k.a. “thermally modified wood”). And if you are looking for the green angle here, the simple fact that wood treatments can dramatically extend the life of the wood is a very “green” attribute indeed—in a life cycle analysis, it lowers the environmental costs of re-harvesting (and re-treating, and re-shipping and re-installing) replacement wood products. However, each wood treatment method has its merits, and each one has features that can make it more or less green. Let’s take a closer look by first reviewing a brief history of wood treatment.

Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA)
For a long time, Chromated Copper Arsenate, or “CCA” was the formula for treating lumber. For decades, it was common to see “green” CCA decks – the green was the color of the oxidized copper. And CCA-treated wood was also commonly used in most ground-contact situations. In the ‘90’s new alternatives to CCA were introduced. None took meaningful market share from CCA because none could match its performance and value. As the millennium approached, there was increased scrutiny regarding the perceived safety of CCA as reported by various “consumer advocate” reporters and environmental organizations. In 2003, treaters voluntarily stopped using CCA for residential applications and newer, more expensive formulations replaced CCA. One bright spot that emerged from the demise of CCA was that the pace of innovation in preservative development quickened.

Alkaline Copper (ACQ) & Copper Azole (CA-B)
The replacement wood preservative treatments were ACQ and CA-B. Let’s first look at ACQ.  ACQ is a treatment consisting of alkaline copper, a fungicide, and quaternary ammonia (sometimes called quat), which serves as an insecticide. On the other hand, CA-B is a treatment containing mostly copper and azole; the azole is a fungicide that appears in various chemical forms. If you step back and take notice, there are two consistent elements in these approaches to wood treatment. One, they all are aimed at stopping rot, decay, fungus, and insects from getting to the wood.  And two, they all overwhelmingly contain copper, a natural, harmless wood preservative. As wood treatments have evolved, some wood treaters (and the chemical companies that license their formulas to these wood treaters) have stayed with copper. But they have eliminated other chemicals in their wood preservative formulations.

Micronized Copper (MCQ)
Among the most positive result was the recent introduction of a new micronized copper wood preservative. Developed by Osmose, Inc., and marketed as ProWood Micro (MCQ Treated Wood), the new process bonds microscopic copper particles to the wood cells. Because of this there is no need for a solvent (which is still used in most other non-micronized formulations) . These attributes have earned the ProWood Micro formulation Environmentally Preferrable Product (EPP) status from Scientific Certification Systems, a leading third party certification firm. This is the first and only such preservative to earn this recognition. To earn EPP certification, a product must demonstrate reduced impact on human health and the environment when compared to other products that serve the same purpose as measured by guidelines published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Non-metallic
There is another relatively new product out today that is offered by Arch Wood Protection. The treatment is Wolmanized L³ Outdoor wood. It contains no copper as part of the preservative and uses a proprietary non-metallic preservative.

Boric Acid
Yet another class of wood treatment is focused on boric acid, as well as its oxides and salts which are called borates. Boric acid is a very-effective wood preservative. Conveniently, it is toxic to insects, but it has low toxicity with humans. That said, the problem with boric acid has always been that it is water-soluble. That means it can be floated into wood with water-based pressure treatments or applied with surface applications. But the boric acid will eventually leach out of the wood. That leaching process is dramatically accelerated if the wood is exposed to the elements. All of this means that wood treated with borates isn’t generally good for ground contact, and in any application, it has to be re-treated repeatedly with borate applications to ensure that the wood is preserved. Now, because borates have gotten another look from consumers, due to the perceived toxicity of alternative wood treatments, borates have seen some innovative uses. One company floats borate deep into wood fiber by mixing it with glycol, a kind of alcohol. The glycol flashes off, leaving the borate behind, and until the borate leaches out, it is a good termiticide, insecticide, and wood preservative. But here too, the wood has to be re-treated regularly.

Thermally-Modified Wood (TMW)
Another kind of wood treatment that you see gaining wider acceptance is heat treatment. Wood that is treated with heat is generally referred to as thermally-modified wood or TMW. This treatment process contains no chemicals or additives at all.  Like its name says, the thermally-modified process uses high heat and steam to change the very nature of the wood. In fact, the thermal process removes the aspects of the wood that serve as food. With no insects, fungus, or mold attacking the wood, the thermally-modified process can prevent for rot and decay. Specifically, the process removes or de-natures the sugars in the wood, leaving behind aspects of the wood that cannot be digested by insects or eaten by fungus and mold. After the wood is thermally treated, it can be stained, sealed, joined, and glued like regular wood.

No matter what type of treated wood you seek, you should be aware of its code acceptance. Some treatments are not code compliant, even though they have been around for a number of years. To get code approval, preservative companies can either work with the American Wood Protection Association (AWPA) to have their treated wood listed in the AWPA Standards. Or the preservative company will work with the International Code Council (ICC) Evaluation Service to earn an Evaluation Service Report (ESR). Without the support of either an AWPA listing or an ESR, there is no guarantee that a local code will allow a product on the job where treated wood is required. So, check the fact sheet from the wood provider or the wood treater to see if the wood is approved for use.

This alternative to pressure treated wood is surprisingly sustainable. The decking market offers dealers and contractors a clear opportunity that is growing in a number of ways. First is market size: The Cleveland-based Freedonia Group says that decking is expected to grow by about 20 percent annually to become a 3.6-billion-lineal-foot industry by 2011. Secondly, the decking market is growing in sophistication. Decking contractors are no longer banging galvy 10d nails in CCA #2 southern yellow pine, as we did in the 1980s. Today decks are part of so-called outdoor living space, and that has even developed into a designer specialty.

For dealers and contractors alike, decks and deck building material offer good-margin, low-maintenance products to customers, who are increasingly willing to pay premiums for products that they will proudly display in high-profile areas of their homes. Today, although decking is still a product that most general-contractors offer, you are seeing an increased number of specialty deck-only operations, and there is a great opportunity for dealers to cater to them.

Decking in the broadest sense of the word now includes four category of products: All-plastic decking, Wood, Composites, and—increasingly uncommon—Aluminum.

The all-plastic decking products are different from “composite decking,” which contains plastic and fiber (more on that below), and plastic decking breaks down into sub-categories by differentiating themselves from one another by the source and type of plastic, and sometimes by the plastic’s recyclability. The most popular choices of deck plastics break out into five categories:

1. Common HDPE  (#2, milk jugs);
2. Recycled high-density polyethylene plastic (ReHDPE);
3. Polypropylene (think Tupperware);
4. Solid polyvinyl chloride a.k.a. PVC;
5. Cellular PVC (polyvinyl chloride with a foaming agent).

 (It important to know the difference between the types of plastic, because they are also used in composite decking material.)

With so many kinds of plastic, manufactures of all-plastic decks will point out differences in the plastics they use, especially where the plastics come from. Marketers of decking will take great pride in features like “virgin plastic,” or a high percentage of “post consumer resins” (PCR), and even “100% recyclable.” Also, since plastic decking can be manufactured through extrusion (that is, product that is pushed through a mould), even the speed of extrusion can be a selling factor, because a product that is extruded too quickly is considered poorer quality.

Whether you are dealing with all-plastic decking or composites, HDPE is the most commonly used product. It performs very well in most situations, and expands only along its length, like vinyl siding. Plus, it does not swell, as many lumber products will. Manufactures argue that it retains color well. Plus, the all-plastic product is entirely recyclable.

Another product, all-plastic PVC decking generally has resistance to scratching, staining, and fading that is superior to composite decking. But PVC decking has been getting slammed for the toxicity of the manufacturing process, which can release mercury and dioxin. That said, there is a green case to be made for PVC’s performance and durability, and it goes like this: If you use PVC (in all-plastic or composite products), you are less likely to harvest, manufacture, and ship replacement products, which therefore makes PVC a viable alternative to wood. What’s greener: a 30-year plastic or PVC deck…or a wood deck that has to harvested, shipped, installed and shoveled into the landfill three times in those three decades?

Now, on to composite decking. It’s called composite or synthetic decking because it has more than one component, and this class of decking has some characteristics of wood and some of plastic. Most composite wood decking is created when wood is added to plastic resin (usually polyethylene). Since the properties of composite decking vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, marketers will differentiate their products using various metrics or features, most notably:

• The source of their plastics (“post-consumer” is considered greener),
• The percent of recycled plastic (for those who want to use recycled products),
• The percent of virgin plastic (for those who don’t want to use recycled plastics because of perceived quality issues),
• The source of the non-plastic components used (recovered wood is the greenest alternative),
• The quality of the post-consumer resin used in the plastic (you don’t want chopped-up milk and vitamin labels in the deck boards),
• The color-fast properties of the decking (fading is so common among some it’s sometimes called a “mellowing process”),
• The surface feel and slip-resistance,
• The structural performance of the product (look for 16 o-c span-ability),
• The UV-protection the decking (anything to frustrate the sun’s punishing rays), and
• The deck board’s weight per board food (for transportation, easy handling during installation, and span loading).

 For a good composite example, let’s look at a popular product and see how it presents itself in these categories. Latitudes composite wood decking is made with both recycled and virgin polyethylene, and 100% of the wood additive is reclaimed product. Indeed, Latitudes is made from approximately 70% recycled materials. It’s “barefoot friendly,” slip-resistant, and reversible with a brushed finish on one side, and a wood grain look on the other, so you can choose look-and-feel. Latitudes comes in six colors—gray, cedar, redwood and walnut, and the specialty colors of Koa and Adobe in the tropical wood-look Latitudes Capricorn composite decking.

No matter what composite deck boards you're looking for, be sure they can span 16-o.c. joists, and that they comply with the all the crucial codes and standards. Look for a warranty of at least 10 years, and it should cover splintering, corrosion, as well as rot, warp, cupping, checks, or damage caused by termites or fungal decay. And finally, urge your customers to purchase premium products, for their own sake. If they always use low cost as the ultimate metric of value, they risk their reputations, as well as the prospect for annoying callbacks that are hard to solve without painful and costly tear-outs.