Another Way To Think About Sustainable Structures
Maintaining our homes is one of the most sustainable activities we can do. Most of our homes are made of wood logged from the forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Remember those black and white photos of lumberjacks, rivers clogged with cut trees, the mill with smoke stacks, train tracks, lumber wagons, and a caption saying how many millions and millions of board feet were milled? Our roofs and siding and porches are made from those trees. Our homes embody a great investment of energy.
Maintain the investment
This energy is the sum of energy in the tree, the human effort to log, to mill, dry, transport, measure twice/cut once, nail and bolt, and do all the things it takes to construct a shelter. Sustainability of our wood structures through maintenance is a practice that conserves that energy. Some of the current thinking about sustainability and green construction is to replace the old with new, especially eco-friendly products like countertops made from recycled pistachio shells. However, maintenance, like scraping and painting a windowsill, is not so glamorous, but much more eco-friendly.
Think globally, act locally
Being eco-friendly is about protecting our planet, which starts at home. We have identified the goal as reducing our carbon footprint. This includes increasing efficiencies of heating systems, installing cement based sidings, spray foam vegetable resin insulations, low VOC paints, and even recycled pistachio shells for a variety of surface products. However, before we tear off all that old wood siding and send it to the landfill or replace the boiler, let’s consider the less glamorous maintenance and conserve some of that embodied energy.
—Tim Canfield, Home Tailors Building & Remodeling, Saint Paul, MN, tcanfield@hometailors.com