ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES OF COMPOSITE BUILDING MATERIALS

Concerns with the environmental impacts of materials are forcing both manufacturers and end-users to examine the materials used in construction for the purpose of assessing the trade-offs between performance and content. A wide range of material assessment programs are being created to serve the various needs of the parties to the construction process. The Environmental Resource Guide (ERG), a product of the Committee on The Environment (COTE) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), is perhaps the most prominent resource being consulted by construction professionals to obtain information about the environmental impacts of materials. Several databases focusing on materials and their environmental aspects are being developed; for example, ATHENA, a database of information being developed by Forintek, Inc. and BEES, a database under development by the National Institute of Sciences and Technology (NIST). The information contained in these databases includes embodied energy, recycled content, greenhouse warming gas generation, toxic materials production, ozone depleting gas use in production and in use, and others. Composite materials have been analyzed in terms of their environmental impacts and individual materials but not in their final layered form. Although composite materials are designed to have performance which is greater than each individual component, most composites are difficult to recycle, a key issue in the era of sustainability.