Are “Green Building Materials” Actually Green?
Since sustainability is gaining more prominence in every aspect of the world, construction and real estate is also trying to adapt to the changing surroundings. The Government of Bangladesh, in order to try and adapt with international standards, is conducting research to develop green building materials.
What are green building materials, you may now ask? Green building materials is another term given to eco-friendly building materials. These are different from the traditional wood-fired bricks in that they use fewer resources to produce final products that are safer for the environment, and can be used to make a project more sustainable. In the long run, real estate developers are looking towards using more green building materials to ensure that we can build a more sustainable tomorrow for future generations. However, today we will take a deeper dive into whether green building materials are actually as “green” as they claim to be.
To make sure that the Bangladeshi real estate sector is permanently shifting towards the use of alternative eco-friendly building materials, HBRI (Housing and Building Research Institute) has been researching and developing over 25 different types of alternative blocks. One special kind of brick is the “green brick” which is not made like unconventional red bricks in a wood-fired kiln.
Producing conventional red bricks would use up a lot of our natural fossil fuels like coal and firewood, which we already have in very short supply (not adequate to keep continuing the use.) Not only that, but this process also causes waste in the form of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Then there is the additional issue of the fact that if all of our topsoil is used up in making conventional bricks, then our future generations will suffer the consequences. Experts claim that unless existing government organizations and projects start switching to alternative bricks and blocks, the country will never come forth and join forces to fight for sustainability and a greener tomorrow.
Many companies are not making their green building materials genuinely eco-friendly like they are supposed to be. For example, it is a well-known fact that concrete hollow blocks and reinforced concrete panels use cement (key ingredient being gypsum), which needs to be made by mining gypsum. Gypsum mining causes several problems like loss of large areas of land, as well as loss of local biodiversity. Instead of using these, many builders will swap out half of these with red bricks, compromising the structural integrity of the building, its quality, as well as the long-term durability of the building.
While most companies do adhere to the government regulations applicable to their standards of producing green building materials, the government bodies in charge do not always check to ensure that these practices are being maintained or fulfilled. As a result, a lot of the unscrupulous business people involved often try to get away with using sub-par techniques, substituting more sand for cement in sand-cement blocks, and so on. This eventually not only affects the buildings using these products, but also affects the industry as a whole. Another issue is that due to the cost incurred in the production of green building materials, many smaller real estate developers or construction companies cannot afford to use them for a majority of the time. Even public sector projects often shy away from their use, claiming “budgetary concerns.”
The issues currently faced by sustainability in the real estate sector are as follows–using local raw materials, we need to figure out strategies and formulas of creating our own unique green building materials that are eco-friendly, support the local economy, and also highly cost-effective and affordable to the masses. If these make use of things like built-up river sediment and sand, that would add to the sustainability of it all. It will also be a positive step in the right direction if more government projects and organizations start incorporating green building materials and techniques on a regular basis.