Growing and harvesting our building materials would be a great way to move toward a closed-loop system rather than a linear path from extraction to disposal. Doing so holds the promise of true sustainability and regeneration of ecosystems instead of damage to them.
Unfortunately, biobased materials today can be at least as problematic as any other material. Intensive land use, chemical use, fuel use, nutrient runoff, and other pollution are among the impacts of agriculture; add to that competition between food crops and those used for building materials or fuel. We would like to see sustainable use of biobased materials, but improving practices and figuring out how to assess and document more sustainable practices will take a long time. There is no ready equivalent to FSC for biobased materials that aren’t wood, although certification to “organic” standards or other sustainable agriculture standards can provide guidance in some cases.
At the same time, we don’t want to exclude biobased products that are typically responsibly sourced just because they don’t have a certification—particularly where they replace more problematic materials. GreenSpec continues to give preference to rapidly renewable alternatives to materials that present greater concerns. Examples of rapidly renewable materials in GreenSpec include linoleum, cork, and textiles such as wool, sisal, and organic cotton.
Agrifiber Core Architectural Doors
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We consider agricultural waste materials such as straw—the stems left after harvesting cereal grains—to be a good alternative to conventional materials. Such materials might otherwise be wasted, and using them makes the most of agricultural crops.
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Just how low the VOC level needs to be for a given product to qualify for inclusion in GreenSpec depends on the product category. For most products, we require certification to California’s health-based emissions standard, CDPH Std Method v1.1 standard (also referred to as California Section 01350), which tests a product’s resultant VOC concentrations in the space after a given period of time. For wet-applied products like paints, caulks, and adhesives, we still also look for VOC content instead of, or in addition to, verified low emissions; this is because emissions testing doesn’t adequately test initial offgassing, and VOC content is currently the only widely available proxy.
VT Industries manufactures architectural wood doors with agrifiber particleboard cores. The core material is manufactured from rapidly renewable materials such as wheat straw, soybean straw, and sunflower hulls, with formaldehyde-free binders. Agrifiber-core doors are available in a variety of sizes and finishes, with FSC certified veneer available by special order. The doors can be manufactured as non-fire-rated, or to meet Category-A 20-minute positive pressure fire ratings, with 45-minute and 60-minute fire ratings also available in limited sizes.
The materials used in interior doors are the biggest driver of environmental performance, in contrast with exterior doors, where energy performance is paramount. Look for products made of materials with a lower embodied environmental impact and that do not introduce indoor air quality concerns.
GreenSpec lists doors made from FSC-certified wood or reclaimed wood. As with other wood products, specifying FSC-certified wood doors promotes long-term forest management for the benefit of forest ecosystems, timber resources, and local economies. Reclaimed wood doors, like other reclaimed wood products, don't carry the environmental burdens of recent timber harvesting. Previously harvested woods remilled into wood doors can provide rich colors and beauty generally not available from today's faster-growing timber.
GreenSpec also lists composite doors with environmental features such as rapidly renewable materials, agrifiber residue, no added urea formaldehyde, FSC-veneer stiles and rails, salvaged wood, and recycled content. Use of wood byproducts for core material is good, but is considered standard industry practice. Wood byproduct core doors need to have other green features to be listed in GreenSpec.
GreenSpec looks for products that meet California Section 01350 or other stringent emission protocols.
LEED Credits
EQc4.1: Low-Emitting Materials—Adhesives&Sealants
IEQc4.1: Low-Emitting Materials—Adhesives and Sealants
MRc4: Recycled Content
MRc6: Rapidly Renewable Materials
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The Construction Specification Institute's GreenFormat provides comprehensive information on the sustainability properties of a product via a standardized online questionnaire. Click here to leave BuildingGreen's site and go to the GreenFormat listing for this product.
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