CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM : MATERIALS USE AND SUSTAINABILITY.............................................................. 1 The Purpose of This Study ......................................................................................................................... 1 Personal Background and Context ........................................................................................................... 11 Economics, Efficiency and Invisibility in Industrial Capitalism .............................................................. 14 Economic Growth and the River Economy .............................................................................................. 18 Key Sectors: Extraction Industry and Petrochemicals.............................................................................. 23 Bad Rules and Wrong Signals .................................................................................................................. 26 Changing the Rules: the Ecological Service Economy............................................................................. 29 Economic Biomimicry and Decentralization: the Lake Economy............................................................ 33 Priorities for Dematerialization and Detoxification.................................................................................. 36 Building Materials in a Green Economy .................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER II: EVALUATION THE VALUE REVOLUTION: INFORMATION & SERVICE IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY ............................................................. 45 Quality, Information and Design .............................................................................................................. 46 Extended Producer Responsibility............................................................................................................ 47 The Life-Cycle Approach......................................................................................................................... 51 Forms and Criteria of Evaluation: What is a Green Material? ................................................................ 52 Life-Cycle Assessment: the Holy Grail of Green Building ...................................................................... 58 Objectivity and Purpose ........................................................................................................................... 63 LCA Challenges ....................................................................................................................................... 65 Macro-Scale LCA..................................................................................................................................... 71 Building Assessment & Certification Systems......................................................................................... 74 Eco-Labelling ........................................................................................................................................... 80 Wood Certification ................................................................................................................................... 86 Product Guides and Directories ................................................................................................................ 94 CHAPTER III: PRODUCTION MATERIALS IN GREEN INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY ........................................................................... 102 The Form of Service............................................................................................................................... 104 Eco-Industrial Development................................................................................................................... 108 Detoxifying Production .......................................................................................................................... 114 Design Strategies for Clean Production.................................................................................................. 118 The Carbohydrate Economy................................................................................................................... 122 Challenges and Pitfalls of Plant-based Production ................................................................................. 129 Strategic Issues in Building Materials Production I: .............................................................................. 134 Engineered Wood Products .................................................................................................................... 134 Strategic Issues in Building Materials Production II:............................................................................. 142 Cement and Concrete ............................................................................................................................. 142 Strategic Issues in Building Materials Production III:............................................................................ 152 Plastics in Construction .......................................................................................................................... 152 Strategic Issues in Building Materials Production IV: ........................................................................... 164 Indoor Air Quality .................................................................................................................................. 164 CHAPTER IV: RECYCLING RECYCLING, REUSE AND DECONSTRUCTION ................................................................................ 170 Buildings: Time, Use and Change.......................................................................................................... 172 Building Use and Adaptation: Shearing Layers ..................................................................................... 177 Design for Recycling, Reuse and Disassembly ...................................................................................... 180