Low Embodied Carbon Siding

April 17, 2020

Good evening,

I am looking for suggestions to replace"wood" siding at the 25-year-old Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies and as always there is no solution that does it all. There seem to be three main options: wood, composition siding, or fiber cement siding. I am looking for something with low embodied carbon, little maintenance, affordable, aesthetic, and recycled content or recyclable with no harmful chemicals if it contains a manufactured component. The buildings are naturally ventilated most of the time with an evaporative cooling that kicks in on warm dry days. We will be shooting for NZE and want to keep embodied carbon at a minimum (it is an existing building). Any suggestions are very welcome...

Thank you!

Pablo

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Carl Sterner

Director of Design & Sustainability

Sol Design + Consulting

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 04/17/2020 - 12:32

Pablo, We've been looking into a similar question for some of our projects, and we've recently specified KWP engineered wood siding. It's wood-based, with far lower embodied carbon than fiber cement, yet still low maintenance. Their primary siding products use 100% pre-industrial recycled content. I've not delved deeply into their material ingredients, but I do know they use ULEF resins. I'm curious to hear what others have found. Carl *Carl Sterner, *AIA, LEED AP, CPHC Director of Design & Sustainability cell 347 604 0257 | office 513 455 8228 x710 | fax 513 455 8227 www.soldesignconsulting.com

Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Fri, 04/17/2020 - 12:37

Worth considering tree bark, the first C2C Platinum product: https://barkhouse.com/ Yep, just tree bark from durable tulip poplars. https://www.buildinggreen.com/forum/low-embodied-carbon-siding I'm curious if anyone has used it? It's a particular look, so I imagine it would never be something that became widespread, but couldn't a couple net-zero projects try it?

Brent Ehrlich

Products and materials specialist

BuildingGreen

LEEDuser Expert

21 thumbs up

Fri, 04/17/2020 - 13:47

From a quick glance, KWP looks pretty good. It uses FSC wood and no-added formaldehyde binder, and is wax impregnated with an extra sealant layer for added moisture resistance (engineered wood’s Achilles heel) before priming and 2x exterior latex topcoat. Haven’t looked beyond their brochures, though. I’m also curious about what others have found. Inexpensive, low-maintenance, environmentally responsible cladding is a tough product sector. Brent From: