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Using Local Building Materials Makes Sense Environmentally
Fri 22 Dec 2006 - 13:11
Using Local Building Materials Makes Sense Environmentally
By Aldene Fredenburg
Much has been made of alternative building materials considered to be green, or environmentally friendly, but one of the simplest ways to build green is to use materials that are available locally.
It has only been within the past century or so that use of remotely harvested or manufactured materials has been extensive; for most of human history, people of ordinary means built homes and public buildings largely from materials available within a few miles of their local environment. In the heavily forested northern part of the U.S., that means wood frame homes; in the Southwest, that means adobe. In parts of mountainous Peru, stone houses are predominant, and in areas of tropical Southeast Asia, traditional native housing has been built largely of local woods, grasses, and bamboo.
Using locally available materials makes sense for a number of reasons; one is that transportation costs, including the cost of energy consumption, are much less than when using materials that have to be shipped across country or imported from other continents. The materials can also be available much more quickly than if shipped from a distance, and can be harvested and processed in a customized fashion for specific needs.
Another possible benefit is more subtle; a culture that has to rely on its own resources for the raw materials to provide shelter and other necessities of life has a large stake in protecting those resources, and will likely develop methods of harvesting that assure long-term sustainability.
Some of the most popular alternative building materials have come from sharp individuals who took a look at their own environment and came up with creative solutions for their housing needs, while others are an adaptation of centuries-old techniques. Straw bale housing is a fairly recent building practice in the U.S., but in parts of Europe straw bale housing has been built for over a thousand years.
And then there are subterranean homes. These homes, a radical new idea in the U.S., use the earth's own insulating ability to create an easily heated home; but it's not nearly as new as one would think. Human beings have taken advantage of this type of housing situation for thousands of years, but we didn't call the shelters homes; we called them caves.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics. She expresses her opinions periodically on her blog, http://beyondagendas.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aldene_Fredenburg
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