March 01, 2009
Go Green with Vinyl Siding. Innovations in vinyl siding continue to strengthen its performance as a truly green building material. One of the industry’s newest product innovations is insulated siding, which helps increase the exterior wall’s R-value and contributes to a home’s energy efficiency.
Green for Life. Green building can play a vital and growing role in the long- term health of our planet. And today’s vinyl siding, the most popular choice for exterior cladding in the United States and Canada, delivers recognized environmental benefits to help make and keep homes green.
Throughout the processes of manufacturing, transportation, installation, service life and waste management, vinyl siding scores well on tough environmental measures. The facts below show how vinyl siding sides with the environment. By using vinyl siding, communities can be greener.
Green by Many Standards. Leading green building certification programs award points for the type of performance that vinyl siding delivers. In fact, vinyl siding has the potential to earn more points than other exterior cladding options.
For example, vinyl siding can contribute to obtaining points in the draft National Green Building StandardTMas a material that requires no additional finish resources, is termite-resistant, may contain recycled content, and may qualify as an indigenous material depending on the proximity of the building site to the manufacturing and extraction location. In addition, insulated vinyl siding may contribute points for building energy efficiency and creating a better thermal building envelope.1
Vinyl siding also can support certification through the LEED® for Homes2 and LEED® for New Construction3Rating Systems from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
Vinyl Siding Supports Carefree Living. Economic performance and long service life are Key factors in measuring sustainability. Vinyl siding delivers in both areas. It requires no painting, staining or sealing at installation or for ongoing maintenance. These attributes not only give vinyl siding a typically lower installed cost than wood, brick, fiber cement, stone or stucco – they prevent releases of toxins and maintenance-related substances from entering the environment.
By comparison, silica-based fiber cement, must be painted and caulked, and special tools are needed for installation, along with a dust mask or respirator, Silica-based fiber cement may potentially cause adverse health. Vinyl siding does not utilize any materials that can cause adverse health effects.
In addition, vinyl siding is a durable, long-life product. NAHB has cited “Lifetime” as the estimated life expectancy of vinyl siding on a home in its Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components (February 2007).
The Natural Choice
Vinyl siding begins with ingredients from nature. Production starts with two simple and abundant building blocks – chlorine (57 percent) from common salt and ethylene (43 percent) from natural gas. And vinyl siding is sustainable. As a meticulously engineered material, vinyl siding durability and expected service life continue to increase as improvements are made to color retention, impact resistance and other key aspects. Which means that vinyl siding delivers reliable performance that can last a lifetime on the house, not in the landfill.
Compliments of: www.vinylsiding.org/community/why/environment/index.asp
