In: Civil Engineering
(A) A contractor or a business owner, must consider Green Building materials as there are a number of benefits in your construction project. Homeowners, contractors and businesses are switching to alternative building materials to limit environmental impact. Green materials are materials that are available locally and are renewable. Local materials often are unique to the locality and controls whatever people make within an area or region. Ground materials such as clay, sand and stone are green materials as they are found underfoot. Plant materials such as grasses, straw bamboo etc are also green materials and are used by humans since they started building.
(B) Four Green Building Materials
(i) Cork
In recent years, cork flooring has become much more prevalent in houses and commercial buildings. Irs a very sustainable building materials, the harvesting of cork does not harm the flora. It is highly renewable, but cork also has fire retardant qualities, sound retardant qualities and is fairly resistant to most liquids.
(ii) Sheep Wool
Instead of chemical-laden insulation, sheep’s wool is a great natural alternative. It insulates homes just as well as conventional insulation, but requires less energy to and has no effect on environment in manufacture. As it's cheap than chemicals it's eco-friendly and economical to insulate your property by sheep’s wool. Sheep's wool can both increase energy efficiency and soundproof your office.
(iii) Recycled Steel
To save trees and to provide increased durability from earthquakes and high winds, contractors are preferring steel beams for the framing process in place of wood. According to the Steel Recycling Institute, a 2,000-square-foot house requires up to 50 trees to build, while a frame made from recycled steel requires the steel-equivalent of just six scrapped cars. Steel is 100 percent recyclable so it can significantly reduce the ecological impact due to new construction works.
(iv) Bamboo
Bamboo flooring is a popular alternative to traditional hardwood. Bamboos are Alavailable in a variety of styles and colors, bamboo can provide a touch of sustainable personality to any space. Bamboo can also be used to replace steel bars in low load bearing structures. Bamboo is a fast-growing grass so when they are chopped in an area they can be replanted and recovered more rapidly than a jungle which requires decades to grow.