From the ground up: new bio-based building products look good while doing good

Residential Architect, March, 2005 by Nigel F. Maynard

As public interest in eco-friendly houses grows, so too does demand for green building products. Made with ingredients that are less harsh than conventional sources, these materials are easier to live with and, presumably, healthier for the environment. Presumably. And that's the problem. Defining what's truly green and what's merely green-tinged isn't easy. Is the priority for your spec energy conservation, sustainable origins, or health concerns? Should it also be recyclable and easy to maintain? Or is it simply enough that it lasts a good long time and will be preserved and cherished by others? Well now there's another shade of green on the rise for your consideration: bio-based building products.

natural selections

Unlike products that use so-called safer man-made solvents, bio-based materials derive primarily from natural raw ingredients, making them as benign as their origins. Once a small subcategory, bio-products now cover a gamut of building applications, among them panels made from agricultural waste fiber, soybean foam insulation, and paints and adhesives almost safe enough to swallow. Forward-thinking architects, builders, and even consumers have known about some of these products for years but now have a more mature industry to plumb.

Architect Theresa K. Phelan uses nature-based products in as many projects as she can. The president of Issaquah, Wash.-based Living Shelter Design Architects enjoys the products' intrinsically different look and believes they're clearly better for the environment and much healthier for her clients. Among her favorites are earthen-based plasters and water-borne finishes.

Bio-based products also promise performance advantages over conventional specs. "These types of products often have characteristics that are better [than traditional products]," says architect Nancy Malone, a senior associate and product researcher at Siegel & Strain in Emeryville, Calif. Malone says, for example, that wheat-based paneling is "hard and durable and has a unique aesthetic that other paneling does not have."

Wane Fuday, CEO of Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Humabuilt, a healthy building systems supplier, agrees. His company offers what he calls the first affordable interior door made of wood veneers blessed by the Forest Stewardship Council, engineered cores of wheat (a rapidly renewable fiber), and water-based adhesives. "At least 85 percent of our doors are made with a product that would have been thrown away," he says. He also claims they're much denser than other products on the market, resulting in greater sound insulation and warp resistance.

Another agriculture-based building material is Kirei by San Diego-based Kirei USA. This eco-friendly building panel is made of 100 percent sorghum stalks, a drought-tolerant and water-conserving grain, and formaldehyde-free adhesives. What's more, the company says, the product removes stalks from their usual fate as landfill waste, another eco-good deed. The panel is well suited to architectural applications such as cabinetry and countertops. Similarly, Portland, Ore.-based Isobord Enterprises fabricates particle board from straw.

Sprayed polyurethane foam, a petroleum-based product, is a popular insulation material among architects who seek an extremely tight house. But green-minded designers can spec a natural alternative in BioBase 501, a spray-in-place insulation made from soybean oil. Manufactured by BioBased Systems in Rogers, Ark., the product emits no VOCs or chlorofluorocarbons, and contains no formaldehyde. "It behaves much like petroleum-based plastic foam, without any of the environmental side effects," the company says.

bio debatable

Paints comprise perhaps the most prominent eco-product category in the mainstream. But their green rigor is debatable, says Amrita Khalsa, vice president of marketing at Santa Fe, N.M.-based EcoDesign, a company that specializes in nontoxic paints and wood finishes. "A lot of these paints still have solvents that are as harmful [as the VOCs] and worse. Some have solvents to make the paint dry faster, glossy, or flat." Her company's BioShield line of natural paints and finishes is made from naturally-derived raw materials, including citrus peel extracts, seed oils, tree resins, and tree and bee waxes, among others. The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. in Groton, Mass., also offers nontoxic paint made with all-natural milk protein, lime, clay, and earth pigments.

No matter how seemingly benign, earth-based products have their own set of issues. For one, architects can become distracted into thinking the products are primary problem-solvers. But loading up on bio-based materials in an otherwise energy-inefficient home is like putting a Porsche engine in a Pinto. "I like to call it the vitamin-enriched cigarette," says Peter L. Pfeiffer, FAIA, principal of Barley & Pfeiffer Architects in Austin, Texas. "A cigarette enriched with vitamin C is still not good for you." The architect says green products must work in conjunction with thoughtful design. So, for example, Pfeiffer says, if you're concerned about off-gassing paint products, you should also ensure the humidity is under control in the house, because one has a great effect on the other.