Renew News » construction

New Eco-Friendly Styrofoam Replacement

Mark — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:35:37 +0000

With fascinating new technology, the company Ecovative has developed a product called EcoCradle that is a biological and biodegradable replacement for extruded styrofoam packaging. They use farm waste like seed husks and stick it together by growing mushroom roots through it.

More info here: evocotivedesign.com

They also make a rigid board insulation product for home building.

“This Old House” Tackles First Green Building Project

Mark — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:38:37 +0000

In the next week or so, the PBS show This Old House will start an eight-part series on an environmentally friendly green remodel of an Austin, Texas 1926 bungalow. They are using all kinds of great fancy eco-friendly materials like Trex Brasilia decking (trex.com) and a really cool glass and concrete mix called IceStone (icestone.biz). There’s a great article all about it in this week’s Newsweek, but since it is the current issue it’s not on the website yet. Just go buy the magazine.

Although I couldn’t find showtimes on the This Old House website (which is weird), you can read more about the project there.

Construction Crews Lead the Way with Solar Equippment

Mark — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:18:11 +0000

I’ve been seeing more and more solar panels on construction and municipal equippment lately. From solar powered flashing lights in school zones, to solar call boxes and message signs on the highway, renewable energy is popping up all over and making life better by providing power in remote areas.

I have always thought that it must be a pain to keep gas in the generators that used to be on the flashing arrow signs on the highway, and who knows how much time and money must’ve been spent on generator maintenance. Also, it must be a hassle dealing with all the disposable batteries in the flashing lights on barrels in work zones. I can recall seeing hundreds of those lights in some areas. Although I haven’t seen any solution to the disposable battery problem (other than just not using them as much), solar seems to have solved the gererator problem on the big highway display signs.

There is a company called Solar Tech that is supplying construction companies with signs that have solar cells on top so that they no longer have to deal with generators. Aside from not having to buy gas anymore, LED technology has surely saved time and money by reducing the cost of changing burned-out light bulbs in the old signs. Also, since LEDs require less energy to operate, they made it easier (or perhaps even possible in the first place) for solar to work in this application.