Well most people realise that building operations, use a lot of power, which means they create a lot of CO2, and that currently stands at 40%, which is why we are looking to improve things like insulation, etc.

Now what most people probably do not realise is that 12% of CO2 emissions come from the production of building materials, which is 3% more than all the passenger cars in the world produce.

Transport is 15%, and Industry 24%, which we need to address as well, but the Building components is one thing we can change dramatically, and quickly, by just developing smarter techbnologies, and being prepared to consider alternatives to traditional methods and materials.

Now of course using timber is the most eco friendly way to build, and in the UK an architect built a great 9 story apartment building with all timber frame panels and mostly timber cladding, so strength wise, the new engineered timber products are really advancing the strength characteristics of timber.

But we still have huge demand for traditional products like plasterboard, or "drywall" as the rest of the world call it, and here is a link to a story about one man, and his company, who sought to improve the incredibly inefficient gypsum design, and has done so, with a saving of 90% emissions.

That is 90% SAVING!!!,
This should help us to keep a positive outlook, even in the face of government inaction, and incompetence, because we see real people in the real world, finding real solutions, and in the end, it is that which may just save us.
http://www.seriousmaterials.com/html/ecorock.html


Another cool product is an OSB sheet(that is Oriented Strand Board, which is like chip board but with big flakes of wood, rather than sawdust) that is made highly fire resistant by an incredibly thin layer of Magnesium Oxide applied over a very light fibreglass, which is bonded to the surface.
This coating makes an incredibly cheap and eco friendly product suitable for use as external cladding in high risk fire areas, and will reduce the costs, and carbon footprint of construction in high fire risk situations.

So, it is never ALL bad news.

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Another cool product that is environmentally friendly is hemp, my neighbour is a leader in the field of wetlands, he uses hemp as a mop crop and then the fibre is made into usable products, he's in the process of building a house out of hemp bricks.

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Ain't that the truth.
As you said the war on weed besides being totally stupid has removed hemp from its position as a great resource, up until 80 years ago a lot of the ropes were made from hemp, its a great product for clothing as well as food as well as its obvious medicinal uses, but I( think it could make a come back via the building industry.
My neighbour that I mentioned before has had a license to grow it for the past 6 or 7 years, he even grows it as a mop crop for Byron council so besides using it as a mop crop when it is mature he harvests it and is having bricks made to build a house, its cheap and efficient, but you cant smoke he's weed, very low THC levels, though last year someone stole a couple of plants from the property next to mine where he was growing some of it, they must have got some good head aches trying to smoke it.

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I'm not sure on how many crops a year he is growing but I would expect a few,what he does do is grow a huge amount of plants in an area, because he isn't growing it for consumption it doesn't need to be grown like a normal plant( you dont have to worry about males or females) and as you said he is harvesting the stem as much as anything.
I helped him plant his first crop about seven years ago and we used about an acre of land with about twenty seeds to a square metre,he's probably fine tuned a bit since then.

muso wrote on May 7^th, 2010 at 9:57am:


I've noticed a local company making coffins in recycled cardboard, good idea.
As for hemp, well you couldn't plant marijuana with hemp because the hemp male plants would affect the real weed.
Where I live is in the GREEN triangle, lots of people grow pot around here, its the main cash crop of the area and lots of my neighbours were pizzed off with my neighbour who did the hemp trials around here as the seed can travel in the wind and spoil "real plants".