Walls

To Be a Fly on an Earth Safe Wall

While working on a project the last month and wanting some texture, I came across the Wolf Gordon Earth Safe books in the showroom, featuring rice papers, grass cloths, and wood veneers “manufactured with sustainable materials and processes that are environmentally sensitive.” I am interested in more specific information, like, “Do your wallcoverings include binders, inks, dyes, fungicides, pesticides, pastes, or flame retardants,” which all contribute to poor indoor air quality with the outgasing of VOC’s?

Unfortunately, none of that information is available, and when I had asked for a spec sheet, I had to provide a vendor number. I realize that this is par for the course in the world of interior design, but since the advent of these intertubes, I believe a company’s goal, especially if that company is touting “green” products, should be transparency.

While my customer service rep, Jose, was extremely accommodating, the only useable information I received, for my purposes, at least, was the permeability rating. It’s 147, for the record. Which doesn’t mean all that much, since there isn’t any standardized permeability rating method in the wallcovering industry. A positive exists in that this particular Wolf Gordon wall covering does not have a backing, making it less a factor in being a party to any mold issues.

Through research, I learned that the Earth Safe line is part of a what Wolf Gordon calls its Ecological Reclamation Program. At the end of the productâ€™s life cycle, the wall coverings can be returned (for credit) and applied to a variety of alternative, secondary uses. This line is composed of natural, renewable or recyclable materials and cellulose harvested from managed forests.

It would seem that the representatives at Wolf Gordon would be eager to share this sustainability program information on its “green” product spec sheet. I’m not sure why they choose not to. Hopefully, as consumers get more savvy in the questions that they ask and designers become more insistent in transparency and full-disclosure when it relates to “green” products, we can all raise the bar and elevate what will pass for “green” in our respective industries.

Get on the SIP's Bus

Although it sounds vaguely like some sort of bacteria, rest assured, SIP’s are much less threatening. The acronym stands for Structured Insulated Panel’s. These efficient and ingenious panels are used in floors, walls, and roofs in mostly residential (and some light commercial) projects.

From the SIPA (Structured Insulation Panel Association) website:

The panels are typically made by sandwiching a core of rigid foam plastic insulation between two structural skins of oriented strand board (OSB). Other skin material can be used for specific purposes. SIPs are manufactured under factory controlled conditions and can be custom designed for each home. The result is a building system that is extremely strong, energy efficient and cost effective. Building with SIPs will save you time, money and labor.

I am told that because SIP’s are manufactured with the insulation built-in, the application is more reliable. Instead of having, say, a spray-foam insulation on your project, where areas can be missed and only show up once a blower door test is performed, SIP’s provide a tight and reliable envelope from the start. This, of course, allows your blower door test – if you are going after a specific building program compliance path -to be more efficient.

As you can see by the graph above, just by using SIP’s, as opposed to conventional timber frame building, you are reducing your energy needs by half. Those are great numbers, don’t ya think?

Also, by by using energy efficient building materials such as structural insulated panels, builders and contractors can qualify for a $2000 tax credit on residential homes or up to a $1.80 per square foot tax deduction on commercial buildings.

Rapidly Renewing with Armstrong

It seems that the folks at Armstrong World Industries in Lancaster, PA have not only jumped onto the fast-moving green bus, but are in fact driving said bus. With a recent induction into the small but esteemed group of LEED Platinum Buildings (and the first LEED EB Platinum outside of California), Armstrong Headquarters in Lancaster is a shining example of this company’s committment to sustainability.

Ironically, Armstrong has recently settled its asbestos injury claims, which had placed them into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. During this time, they restructured their business, no doubt becoming more competitive and refining their line of sustainable flooring, ceilings, and walls. Odd, too, is the full circle in which Armstrong has travelled over this past century, from the hand-carved cork for bottles that started their path, to asbestos, and thankfully back to rapidly renewable materials.

Armstrong provides many different products incorporating high-tech applications for ceilings, like Techzone, to Vinyl and Linoleum flooring with no added formaldehyde. Having a proven track record through the LEED certification process on their own headquarters surely substantiates Armstrong’s ability to provide truly sustainably-minded materials for commercial applications. They also offer tons of great resources on their website, including the LEED credits to which their products are applicable, to product descriptions and chain of custody to aid in the LEED submittal process.

LEED affected credits:
CI 2.0: MR 4, 5, & 6
EQ 4.1 & 4.3

NC 2.2: MR 4, 5, & 6
EQ 4.1 & 4.3