Because of the growing impact of the green movement in recent years, more and more people are looking into ways of incorporating sustainability with the construction of homes, buildings, and cities all over the world. The real estate world as a whole has constructions that can occupy up to 2 million acres each year. Because of this, the effects on the environment are not only great, but are also beginning to affect the lives of people themselves. One of the ways of reducing the impact of construction on the environment is through ecologically sustainable building materials. Here are some of the commonly used materials that the real estate industry is beginning to look into.
Bamboo
One of the primary advantages of bamboo as a construction material is its availability, cheap price, and its flexibility. Many Asian countries have long discovered the many uses of bamboo, not only for building homes, but also for medicine and even food, because young bamboo shoots can be cooked for food or turned into herbal medicine. As a construction material, however, it is especially useful in creating homes that can resist natural catastrophes such as earthquakes and hurricanes. This is attributed to the pliant nature of the bamboo. Bamboo can also be formed into certain shapes and patterns by manipulating the shoots from a very young age.
Stone
Another great option to choose from among ecologically sustainable building materials is stone and clay. Stone materials create less pollution when used in construction since they only need to be processed into smaller blocks. These also do not make use of the chemicals which are often incorporated into cement mix. For optimum environmental protection, however, you should make sure that the company from where the stone and clay are bought clean up the site where they quarry the materials.
Wood
Wood is also another of the best sustainable building materials. They are very strong and they are renewable in wholly environmental ways, and are also very visually pleasing, making them aesthetic as well as utilitarian. Depending on the type of wood use, these are also some of the most durable materials, since some types of hardwood are known to live for thousands of years, and can last twice as long. Unlike cement, wood does not tend to crack.
Issues
There are, however, several issues that you must keep in mind in order to improve sustainability and the environmental friendliness in construction through the use of these types of materials. One is to ensure that the wood and bamboo are harvested from wood farms and not from old-growth forests, which threaten the ecological systems that are present in these forests. Also make sure that ancient trees are not used and that the loggers have the appropriate permit to operate in a given area. Although these materials are more sustainable when compared to the steel and cement which are often used in construction, it is still essential that the means used to create them are equally sustainable and in line with environmental protection policies. Through use of these ecologically sustainable building materials, you get not only better real estate properties, but are doing your share of caring for Mother Earth.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Ecologically Sustainable Building Materials – Options for You to Check Out
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