Designing with American Hardwoods: A Sustainable, Versatile Material Choice
THE PRACTICALITIES OF LIFE CYCLE THINKING
Comparing two potential material alternatives, and defending the choice, means evaluating widely different characteristics. Sustainability concerns range from energy conservation, recycling and indoor air quality, to impact on indigenous peoples and wildlife habitats. Simple formulas are no help in weighing the positive impact of high-recycled content against the negative impact of high-embodied energy, for example.
New products are not always better when evaluating hardwoods and green building products. In a 2004 Material Matters interview, Huston Eubank, AIA, vice president of the World Green Building Council observes, "How about looking at old materials and finding new ways to use them? Let's look at some old solutions before we feel the need to invent some piece of rocket science that takes the entire power output of the Columbia River to manufacture."
Clearly, life cycle questions have no simple answers. There's no substitute for product and material research, professional judgment, critical thinking and common sense.
Rules of thumb, however, can produce defensibly sustainable decisions. Although full-scale life cycle analyses and assessments may be unrealistic, life cycle thinking is a practical route to materials selection-a common-sense framework for evaluating alternatives that can be tailored to each project.
Design professionals often use LEED as a quick checklist, and can be tempted to focus on amassing LEED points, rather than on integrated design. Kowalski notes, "If you get too hung up in the credits, you don't take advantage of the whole system. That's how LEED is meant to be used. If you're not used to integrated design, you may work line-by-line instead of big-picture. You have to put the LEED checklist aside for a minute. Do integrated design, and LEED will be automatic."
Advancing technology will continue to strengthen the need for human connections to the natural world. Projects reflecting integrated sustainable design will foster these connections and protect the environment. Smart use of renewable materials, such as North American hardwoods, in attractive, well-designed, environmentally preferable buildings, will contribute to sustainability and enhance the built environment.
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