Design & Build With Metal: Looking Back And Looking To Nature: Today's Green Solutions

We’re clearly in the most intense green revolution since the oil embargo of the 1970s. Some might think that this frenzy of activity to reduce our impact on the environment is new and can only be addressed with 21st century innovation. My recent visit to the National Building Museum in Washington, DC quickly reminded me how wrong that assumption can be. The “Green Community” exhibit at the museum provided an interesting look into the history of green practices that are common today. The quote that caught my eye was: “The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery – not over nature but of ourselves.” I was surprised to see that this was not a recent quote, but one made by Rachel Carson in 1962.

I was also reminded that many of today’s green solutions to climate, water, and sustainable existence are nothing new to mankind. A timeline in the museum points out that in 80 AD, the Roman Senate passed a regulation requiring that water needed to be stored during dry periods. In 1510 Leonardo Da Vinci designed a horizontal water wheel to prove the principle of water turbines. In 1690 Colonel William Penn required Pennsylvania settlers to preserve one acre of trees for every five acres that were cleared. In 1762 Benjamin Franklin led a committee to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. The first mechanical windmill water pump was invented in 1854. And in 1861 Professor Augustine Mouchot of France patented a solar pump.

It was also amazing to learn about the amount of waste that our cities around the world generate. The United States recycles approximately 32% of the trash that we generate , which translates into 4.6 lb per capita. Americans discard 96 billion pounds of food each year. Restaurants and grocery stores throw out $30 billion of food annually. The incredible amount of food that is discarded was the basis for the formation of a national group called the “Freegans”. The mission of the Freegans is to salvage discarded food and provide it to foodbanks in cities across the country.

I left the museum with the feeling that we can do better in the building construction industry regarding the innovation of more sustainable products. The next day I was amazed to read about new products on the market that are designed to be less harmful to our environment. We are reminded that in nature there is no waste. To be truly sustainable, our industry needs to create and build with products that do not end up as waste. Many of the products that I read about actually mimic nature.

Examples of some of these products are...

• Greeting cards that can be buried after their use. No trees are destroyed when making the cards since they are made from paper waste. They are embedded with seeds of flowers or herbs which sprout once the card is buried.

• Pressed paper board hangars that replace wire or plastic hangars. GreenHeart Global estimates that 3.5 billion wire clothes hangers and 8 billion plastic ones end up in landfills each year.

• High-end biodegradable dinnerware made from steamed, heated and pressurized palm leaves is now available. Before you laugh at that idea, note that plates, bowls and trays made from this materials are the china used in the luxury boxes at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

• An alternative to expanded poly styrene packaging materials has been developed using rice hulls and mushrooms.

The idea of mimicking nature is referred to as bio mimicry. One of the more popular examples of biomimicry is the development of self cleaning coatings based on the nanoscale bumps on the leaves of the lotus plant. The carpet industry has used biomimicry to develop alternatives to conventional adhesives. Researchers are learning how to modify building designs for thermal comfort based on the study of termites in a building that can maintain constant temperatures despite wide range of outside temperatures. Scientists are studying the web silk of spiders that is as strong as Kevlar for possible applications in construction fibers or cabling. Other research has proposed adhesive glue from studying mussels, solar cells made like leaves, and harvesting water from fog like a beetle.

Where will tomorrow’s metal component materials come from? Will they have a lower impact on the environment than today’s materials? Where will we look to find the inspiration for these innovations? The best places to look for solutions are to the past, and to nature. We can learn from our predescessors about innovation. We can examine how necessity was in fact the mother of invention. Today there are many necessary changes that need to be made if we intend to be sustainable in how we design, construct and operate buildings.

We can also certainly learn from nature. A closer examination of our environment can show how things naturally stick together, gather and distribute energy, cool off, shed and retain water, insulated each other, provide strength, remain clean, repair themselves, and are re-used. At the end of a product’s life in nature it often becomes food for another process in nature. This is a lesson in sustainable building practice as well.

Tomorrow’s metal roof and wall assemblies will likely feature bio-based sealants, adhesives, insulators, coatings, re-usable attachment techniques and brand new products. The end result should be a more sustainable design without compromising the structural and/or functional performance of the assembly. As the green community says, we have no choice but to Re-Think, Re-Use and Re-Cycle to sustain the use of metal in the construction industry.

Scott Kriner is the president and founder of Green Metal Consulting Inc. He is a LEED Accredited Professional who began his career in the metal construction industry in 1981. His company is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the California Association of Building Energy Consultants and the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). Scott can be reached by email at skriner1@verizon.net, or by phone at (610) 966-2430. You can also visit him on the web at www.greenmetalconsulting.com.

For more columns by Scott and a host of other contributors, click here.