Room for a view

Sustainability for Our Future

by Ben Simpson

Sustainable living can be defined as: To keep in existence, to maintain and to support; to create systems that are replicable and infinitely renewable, and that can maintain themselves and us through natural means. The earth is the ideal example of a self-sustaining organism. The sun provides the raw energy that life on our planet needs to survive, drives our weather, provides us with food, water, light and heat.
Due to our ever-increasing desire for speed, efficiency and technology, and our reliance on non-sustainable, non-renewable energy systems and technologies, we have come to a critical point on our planet. We place enormous stresses on both our environment and resources. Problems like global warming and environmental pollution are the result of human experimentation and economically-based political tampering, as well as an increasing disconnection with the planet, its processes, needs and reactions to our modern lifestyles.
This winter’s energy shortage, which saw heating oil prices rise overnight by as much as $1 per gallon and kerosene prices by even more, is a wake-up call reminiscent of the one we received during the energy crisis of the ‘70s and early ‘80s. During that era, new ideas, inventions and policies emerged out of necessity as people were forced to look for energy alternatives.
People began car-pooling. Heating fuel was conserved by lowering thermostats. Homes were weatherized, and wood and solar energy for home and water heating was introduced. Although many of these ideas have become even more viable due to present-day materials and technologies, as the ‘80s tumbled into the ‘90s, and political maneuvers reopened the flow of fuel, which in turn drove prices down, the strength and momentum of the alternative energy movement faded.
As we find ourselves in yet another manipulated energy crunch, it is clearly time to re-energize this movement. By using modern analytical technologies and testing techniques, looking at the results of our actions to date and tracking past environmental catastrophes, we can now make more intelligent and conscious decisions for our future. And we can learn to live in a more “sustainable” way than ever before.
While there are many areas where sustainable ideas can be applied, this discussion will be limited to home-building approaches. How can we design, build and upgrade our homes to use less energy and create less pollution while being more affordable and comfortable?
Plain and simple, the more buildings we build, the more resources and energy we use and the more pollution we create. Between 1980 and 1998, 12,000 new homes were built in Ulster County. Many of these were large houses requiring tremendous amounts of resources, money and energy to build and maintain. Although the notion of controlling the rate of growth and size of homes is a challenging idea, the bigger challenge is to meet our housing needs (not desires) while providing for and living by the needs of our planet.
Typically, a prospective homeowner buys a piece of land and hires an architect and/or builder, many of whom follow pre-established and conservative routines in both the design and construction of new homes. A general contractor is then hired to oversee the construction of the home. After an excavator prepares the site for the building’s foundation, a mason constructs the foundation either out of concrete block or poured concrete, and once the foundation is waterproofed and backfilled, the framing crew arrives and constructs floors, walls, roof, siding, windows etc. Electrical and plumbing systems are installed, power is hooked up to the local electrical grid, and water and sewer are connected either to town services or to a newly-drilled well and septic system. The plumber installs a medium-efficiency heating and hot water system, and in more recent years installation of a cooling system has become the norm. Fiberglass insulation is added, sheetrock is hung, and once all the interior finishing is done—lighting, appliances, household fixtures—a final inspection takes place, and the homeowner receives a certificate of occupancy and can move in.
This is the standard routine—fast, efficient, easily replicable—seen throughout the country and our region. It is not a sustainable model. Designing or upgrading the sustainable home requires a few simple additions to the above scenario. First, design plans should realistically address living space requirements to avoid building an overly large and inefficient structure. Create your designs on paper and take them to a knowledgeable designer and/or builder. Make sure this person is someone you can work closely with and is open to creating a balance between sustainability, affordability, aesthetic beauty and comfort. Consider using solar designs, energy-efficient “tight house” construction techniques and “green” building materials. Also, plan to use energy-efficient appliances and lighting, as well as alternative electrical systems such as solar photovoltaic or wind power. This approach can cost more up front, but the lifetime energy savings, comfort and building quality more than compensate for the initial investment. One sustainable technique uses passive solar design for heating. In this case, the long axis of the house is oriented south, and most of the windows are placed on this side to gather the sun’s energy. Stone, brick or tile exposed to the sun will store the sun’s energy and then radiate it at night or on cloudy days. For existing homes, there are a number of great solar retrofit designs that, when coupled with conservation techniques, can make a home more comfortable, affordable and valuable for resale, as well as being good for the environment.
More advanced techniques include using superinsulation systems; alternative heating systems such as wood or pellet stoves and other radiant systems; and active solar design systems for hot water, electricity and space heating. And then there is the Star Energy Program. A working partnership between the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, Star outlines standards for energy efficiency in both new and existing homes, identifies appliances and lighting fixtures that are more energy-efficient and cost-effective, and can cut energy bills by 30 percent.
When all of these factors are taken into consideration, the sustainable model becomes a livable reality. The following are a few specific examples of materials and techniques that can save energy and money, help support local economies, reduce the need for technology- based systems and help protect the environment. Keep in mind, while some of these alternatives are more expensive and come with as much “embodied” energy (energy used to produce and transport a material) as their conventional counterparts, they show a greater savings in energy and dollars over the life of a building.

Foundation Materials
Faswall blocks, similar to concrete blocks, are a mixture of Portland cement and ground- up wood fiber from shipping pallets, a waste material. The blocks are stacked, reinforced with steel and filled with concrete. The finished system uses a minimum of 15 to 20 percent less concrete and has a finished insulation value of up to R-24 (R=resistance to heat flow), as compared to a conventional foundation with an R value of one-and-a-half to two. Other alternatives include concrete-foam blocks, blocks made from waste wood and fly ash and foam forms. Most use environmentally friendly types of foam or recycled materials, have R values around 20 and use up to one-third less concrete for their construction.

Think Locally
It is important to consider ways in which the building process can support the local economy and labor force as well as the planet’s resources. This means buying from local lumber mills, employing advanced framing techniques that reduce wood use by up to 25 percent, and using alternatives such as post and beam straw bale construction (see below). Local lumber markets could become viable alternatives to logging, milling and shipping old-growth lumber from Washington State and other distant places, a process that uses huge amounts of energy in transportation.

Insulation
Air sealing is very important. In the average home today, 30 to 40 percent of heating costs are associated with air leakage. Among the few good insulation alternatives to Fiberglas, cellulose is highly recommended. Made from 75 percent recycled newspaper, it has a slightly better insulating value than Fiberglas, is safe to work with and does a more complete job. Other materials to consider are mineral wool (or slag wool, a waste product of iron ore smelting), cork insulation, cotton batting and straw.
Super insulating a home—increasing the thickness and accompanying R value of insulation—can reduce energy usage by 50 percent or more. Any insulation material can be used. A great super insulation system that meets sustainability requirements is a technique called straw bale construction.
Bales of straw are stacked like giant blocks on a standard foundation, either as the building framework or as filler between wood framing. The bales are then pinned to each other using various techniques. Once the walls have settled, they can be finished with stucco, plaster or other conventional sidings.
Straw bales are a natural, safe, locally available and annually renewable material. Homes built using this technique offer insulation values of up to R-45 and can be constructed using unskilled labor. This technique also helps to support local farm economies, reduces fuel dependence, is economical, can last 100 years or more and creates beautiful and comfortable spaces. When combined with a passive solar heating design and super efficient appliances and lighting, it’s possible to move towards a zero-purchased-energy home.

Roof Systems
When considering roof systems, there are a number of alternatives. Most will last 50 years or more and are made from recycled materials. The most common is metal roofing having 50 percent or better recycled content. Other alternatives include shingles made from recycled plastic or aluminum cans, fiber-composite shingles made from wood fiber, cement and fly ash (a power plant waste product) and roof tiles made from old tires and other recyclable rubber products. Again, many of these alternatives can be more expensive, but they create a higher quality finished product and use raw materials that would otherwise clog our landfills. They also have a longer useful life, which makes them price-competitive with conventional roofing systems.

Appliances
There are a number of superefficient appliances on the market today. The Energy Star label—part of the federal Star Energy program—can lead you to these. For example, most Energy Star labeled refrigerators are between 20 and 38 percent more efficient than standard models. Energy Star washing machines require 35 to 50 percent less water and use 50 to 70 percent less energy than conventional machines, and lighting appliances with compact fluorescent bulbs can also use 50 to 70 percent less energy than incandescent bulb fixtures and will last six to 10 times longer. With average use, one bulb can last seven years and save $25 in energy costs for each fixture, paying for itself in combined energy savings and bulb replacement costs.

Heating Systems
Once again, look for the Energy Star label. These appliances are 15 percent more efficient than federal standards. Look for boilers and furnaces that are at least 85 percent efficient; 90 percent is even better. This means more heat per fuel unit, more complete combustion of fuel, producing less harmful emissions and lower fuel bills. In the ideal superinsulated home, the sun is your central heating system and you need only design for backup heat on severely cold and cloudy days. High-efficiency woodstoves, wood-pellet stoves (fuel made from compressed sawdust), and multi-fuel stoves that burn corn as well as cherry and olive pits are all good forms of clean-burning, high-sefficiency (80 to 90 percent) sustainable fuel heating systems. Typically, hot water in a home can account for $250 to $400 of energy costs a year. Instantaneous water heaters, which are 80 percent efficient, are a good alternative to tank heaters, which are about 50 percent efficient at most. Of course the best alternative is solar hot water. It produces zero emissions, costs nothing once the system pays for itself and has an indefinite life span if properly maintained. It can also be used for space heating in a superinsulated home.
In addition, solar, water and wind generator systems, although costly, are a great alternative to traditional power- plant electricity. They can supply all the electricity needed to run a home, while creating zero pollution emissions and no annual costs aside from the initial investment; and the extra power that’s produced can be sold back to the local power company under the net metering law.
When putting the final touches on a home, there are many alternative products to choose from. Most will not save energy, but they are non-toxic natural materials made from recycled or reused resources. There is carpeting made from recycled plastic bottles, wool or cotton fiber, flooring products made from bamboo, cork straw fiber and recycled rubber, plastic, glass or wood wastes. There are plywood-type products made from recycled paper fiber (Homasote), bamboo (Plyboo) and plastic/wood-composite decking for outdoor decks. And finally many of the standard manufactured wood products, such as laminated beams and composite wood-chip plywood, also use waste wood or smaller-dimension trees for raw material.
As you can see, there is a range of methods and approaches to sustainable building. With a little conscious decision-making, good planning and quality construction, even the most conventional home design can be upgraded to reduce fuel consumption, eliminate high maintenance costs, protect the natural environment and benefit the local economy. As the market demand for these types of products and approaches to building increases, prices will come down and the potential for growth in the local sustainable-building industry will increase. The question is: Are we, as individuals or as a society, willing to make the conscious choices necessary to advance sustainable living? n

Ben Simpson, owner of Growing Places in Rosendale, New York, is a builder, designer and teacher, well-versed in the methods of conventional and alternative building. Currently he is constructing a post-and-beam straw-bale barn for Four Winds Farm in Gardiner. The facility will be used primarily for its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project and includes an attached passive solar greenhouse and underground root cellars for winter food storage. Simpson will be leading a straw-bale wall-raising workshop at Four Winds in early spring. For more information on the workshop or sustainable living, call Growing Places at 658-7022.