How Regionally Sourced Materials Advance Sustainable Architecture

Buildings are a lot like restaurants—hear me out! Consider the boom in farm to table restaurants. Diners delight in and chefs pride themselves on utilizing local, seasonal ingredients to create dishes that reflect the region and champion sustainable practices. Buildings are much the same. They consist of a selection of ingredients that reflect the design principles and impact the embodied carbon in the finished product. And just like the journey of food from farm to kitchen, where those building materials came from matters.

Every material chosen and every building erected leaves an indelible mark on our planet. The concept of embodied energy and embodied carbon provides a lens through which we can measure this impact, tracking the energy consumed and carbon emitted from the extraction, production, and transportation of building materials. For architects and builders committed to a future of sustainable architecture that minimizes the ecological footprint of our built environment, choosing sustainable building materials is a crucial step.

What is Embodied Carbon?

Embodied carbon refers to the total carbon dioxide emissions that occur during the full lifecycle of the material. That means adding up the greenhouse gases produced in extraction, production/processing, transportation, installation/construction, all the way to disposal.

Similarly, embodied energy represents the total energy required to produce any building material throughout these processes. Together, they offer a full picture of a material’s environmental impact before it even arrives at a construction site. By choosing materials with lower embodied energy and carbon, architects and builders can significantly reduce the overall environmental impact of their projects.

Let’s explore two common building materials that illustrate the variance in these environmental impacts:

Concrete: Concrete is widely used for its strength and durability, but it has a high embodied energy and carbon footprint. The production of Portland cement, a key ingredient in concrete, involves heating limestone and other materials to high temperatures, which consumes significant amounts of energy and releases a substantial amount of CO2. Moreover, the extraction and transportation of raw materials add to its overall embodied carbon. Concrete’s extensive use in construction globally makes it one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the building sector.

Timber: On the other hand, timber presents a stark contrast. As a renewable resource, timber has a much lower embodied energy when sourced sustainably. It absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere during its growth phase, effectively storing carbon until the end of its use. When processed using energy-efficient methods and transported over shorter distances, timber’s embodied carbon remains relatively low. Additionally, timber that remains in good condition at the end of its life can often be recycled to manufacture wood-based products such as panels, mulches, or paper or converted into biomass energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Of course, architectural designs will determine some of the needed characteristics of your building materials, such as strength, fire resistance, R-Value, and more. But when faced with building material decisions, consider sourcing as a key calculation in its embodied carbon.

The Cost of Distance: Transportation’s Role in Sustainable Architecture

The journey of building materials from their source to the construction site can profoundly affect their carbon footprint. Trucks, cargo vessels, and even planes used to bring building materials across countries and oceans consume fuel and create emissions. Long distance freight also inflates their prices with fuel costs, insurance fees, and logistical expenses. Even still, most new homes contain materials from around the globe, from Italian marble and Canadian hardwood to German engineered windows and Chinese-manufactured steel. But this wasn’t always the case.

Historically, buildings were constructed mainly with locally sourced building materials, not just out of necessity but also because it was the most sustainable option available. In the Southwest, for example, the prevalent use of adobe and stucco reflects the availability of clay. Meanwhile, old New England properties are often characterized by wide pine floors and natural fieldstone walls, materials that were easily acquired from the surrounding area. These building materials define the architectural character of the regions while minimizing the environmental impact associated with their use.

Why is Building with Local Materials Better For The Environment?

We can and should shift our choices back to locally sourced building materials. Of course, one of the most substantial environmental advantages of using local materials is the significant reduction in carbon emissions and energy consumption associated with transportation. Shorter supply chains also typically mean less fluctuation in material prices. These sustainable building materials support local economies, keeping money within the community and allowing local businesses to invest in eco-friendly extraction and manufacturing practices. Furthermore, local materials are often inherently suited for the local climate, reducing energy use for heating, cooling, moisture-management, and more.

TimberHP: Pioneering Local Solutions for Green Building Materials

One material every building needs is insulation and TimberHP is committed to providing local, sustainable, and high performing insulation to the US. Inspired in part by New England’s traditional practices of using locally sourced building materials, TimberHP has introduced wood fiber insulation technology in the United States. Originally a European innovation, wood fiber insulation is known for its excellent thermal properties and environmental benefits. However, importing these materials from Europe presented significant environmental and economic barriers. By establishing production in Madison, Maine, we’ve cut down on carbon emissions from shipping and provided a source of green building materials to US architects and builders that meet the demands of energy-efficient home designs. Unlike other insulations that are derived from fossil fuels, our products are biogenic, non-toxic, and biodegradable. Our products arrive at the jobsite carbon negative and help sequester carbon throughout the lifetime of the building they are used in.

We renovated the once derelict Madison Paper Mill, reviving the job market in this Northern Maine town. We partner with local lumber yards and mills to reuse their wood waste as our feedstock. They practice sustainable forestry throughout New England, managing our woods for long term health and in the process create residual wood chips that would otherwise be considered waste. Instead, we process this leftover wood into wool-like fibers to make our non-toxic, highly-efficient insulation. And when all of that is said and done, we stock our finished products with local dealers.

But that’s just one small slice of the country, and the globe. We hope to not only expand our manufacturing to other regions of the US, but also serve as a model to other innovators in sustainable architecture. The benefits of wood fiber insulation and local sourcing are no secret of ours! The more businesses and communities that take up the project of creating sustainable, locally sourced building materials, the more we all benefit. We encourage professionals in the building industry to check out our technical library, attend one of our continuing education events, or get in touch with us to learn more. There is a growing recognition in the building industry for the need to reduce embodied carbon and to further evolve sustainable architecture, we believe solutions lie close to home.