In answer to Holly's question...
Holly, you put forth a good question. Is vinyl sustainable? It is after all a part of LEED certification. My understanding is that it qualifies for LEED simply because it can be recycled so easily and because (I believe) many types of vinyl products have recycled content. There are however, major issues with off-gassing as well as production methods and resource depletion. That being considered, I don't know that it could be labeled as a truly 'sustainable' product. My gut feeling about vinyl is that it is very useful in certian situations, but when other products can serve the purpose, vinyl should be put aside in favor of other more people-friendly materials. That being said, I would keep your eyes peeled for new technologies that improve those issues and new products that have all the positives of vinyl without all the drawbacks.
posted by janelle @ 11:33 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Janelle,
I asked David Brems this question. He is the B of GSBS and the state's expert in sustainability. (He is the 2006 chair of AIA's Committee on Design and was inducted into the College of Fellows yesterday in a ceremony at the Disney Concert Hall. Half the office went to LA this week for the ceremony.)
He said to stay away from vinyl if at all possible. The major problem is offgassing, but there are different qualities of vinyl. Some types offgass terribly, and some hardly at all. The high quality LVT (luxury vinyl tile-new phrase I've learned) I've seen is very stable and has its benefits. As you said it's easy to recycle and it lasts a long time. There is a new LVT (can't remember the name right now) that is charged with ions that are released as you walk on it. The ions clean the air just like the sharper image air filter does and can improve IAQ by up to 80% (according to the rep). I got the impression that the filtration qualities of this tile wouldn't be possible without the stability of vinyl. Lonseal flooring has an online CEU course titled "Vinyl as a Sustainable Flooring Alternative" (http://www.aecdaily.com/sponsor/lonseal ). The lobbying for vinyl as sustainable is huge.
When it comes to vinyl wallcoverings the offgassing is terrible. I'm allergic to chemicals and being around it, even after it's had time to offgass, makes me feel terrible. But in commercial there isn't much alternative to it's high performance. A rep from Wolf Gordon explained that Type II wallcoverings are measured for tensile strength on a scale and fall between 10-50. Vinyl is usually around 45, while an environmental wallcovering may only be an 11. Because of this the designers at GSBS say the high-performance of vinyl (especially in tenant improvement projects) trumps the environmental qualities of other wallcoverings in anything other than LEED projects.
I think the responsibility of designers is to be more vocal in demanding and specifying sustainable materials. If we demand it companies will develop better products and more alternatives. There just isn't enough out there yet.
Woolley once told me that if a client wasn't interested in sustainability he'd go ahead and specify the materials anyway and not tell them. As long as it looked good and met the budget they didn't care. (I'm still not sure just how sarcastic he was being.)
For designers I think it comes down to an individual decision on just how green you want to be. There are many levels of commitment to sustainability. Do you want to do some greenwashing and specify a few recycled materials, or do you want each of your projects to exceed LEED Gold?
These are just some things I've been thinking about. Thanks for addressing my question!
Holly
I just remembered. Zaxxon Ionique is the flooring that claims to clean the air.
http://www.zaxxonflooring.com/us/company/
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