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Expert Exchange

Webinar: Choosing Materials and Products for a Green Home

Experts share insights for making selections that will result in a high-performance building

HempWool from Hempitecture is among the more cutting-edge products used in high-performance building envelopes.

In this webinar, building experts share wide-ranging perspectives from a diverse set of circumstances—from areas of expertise to business models and philosophies to regions/climate zones. They answer the overarching question: How can we efficiently and effectively choose the right materials to ensure building performance across categories that include sustainability, durability, cost, building-science best practices, and occupant health?

We learn about Vali Homes’s Five Factors of Good Building—a holistic model for specifying materials, and the value of their “Do Not Use” list. There’s discussion around benchmarks for choosing materials; the challenges of working in rural areas with fewer resources; getting clients onboard with trying new products and systems; changes in the green building industry that have led to more data and a broader knowledge base—and the impacts on products and their use.

As an MD with a Master’s in Architecture, Dr. Stephanie Taylor brings to the conversation her research on hospital buildings, sharing surprising findings around water vapor levels and human health. She explains reasons for choosing materials with “micro channels,” i.e., porous surfaces that absorb water vapor and help modulate a room’s humidity level; and how mid-range humidity levels protect against other air pollutants in the house, improving indoor air quality.

Additional talking points include finding vetted information to source the right materials; procurement logistics and specification strategies; how building science can help inform a product’s appropriate use; the ways in which moisture management systems influence materials selections; buildings as a “high-performance ecosystem,” and recommended resources: 40to60rh, Building4Health, Ecomedes, Kitchen Cabinets Manufacturers Association, BEAM Estimator, LBC Red List, to name a few.

 

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Kiley Jacques is senior editor at Green Building Advisor.

One Comment

  1. sunandspirit | | #1

    Thank you for the seminar, everyone. I am exploring the use of Hempwool however, we will not know its durability for many years. Hempcrete has been used to great effect for decades in Europe (according to Hempcrete builders), but its unique combo of lime and hemp give it many of its great qualities including fire and insect resistance. Hempwool is not fire resistant and may not be pest-resistant; it also may not stand the test of time. Some of the drawbacks would be the same with wood fiber insulation. re: Stephanie Taylor's humidity discovery, I had my vaporizer running last night (before I watched this) and just put it in the office I'm writing in now :) I agree with compromise and the fact that what we may deem healthy may later prove incorrect, such as sterile environments of super-purified air, so it's important to be balanced and not too stressed about everything that can be harmful - it almost seems like everything is, and that's no way to live.

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