A lot of sustainable building materials use reclaimed or recycled materials. It is simple…the more we re-use products, the less we acquire new products and deplete world resources (and waste less energy manufacturing new materials).
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Saving Energy with Clay
Building with sustainable materials
While we may not have a home that is explicitly built with sustainable materials, it is a good feeling to know that by using even one or two sustainable building materials we can lessen our personal carbon footprint. Energy efficiency and sustainable buildings are other important and interesting topics of our time. People are looking for sustainable, ecological and energy-efficient construction systems and building concepts. The main idea of using sustainable building materials is to construct a home that lasts—and a longer-lasting home means lower maintenance costs and less up-keep.
Clay is one such sustainable material…
- Comes from the earth, and can be reused or returned to the earth when the life of the building is over.
- Are harvested and produced locally, and fit the local climate.
- Do not contain harmful chemicals or require large amounts of energy to produce.
Besides being natural, high-quality and maintenance friendly ceramics are sustainable materials in all production stages – from raw material extraction to production and packaging, through to processing. They are very stable, resistant to high temperatures and do not expand or shrink with temperature variations.
Clay is a natural raw material and extracted locally with the greatest possible consideration for the environment and the biodiversity of flora and fauna. Subsequently, clay is processed, shaped and fired.
Wienerberger permanently optimizes its reduction processes to minimize energy consumption and CO2 emissions. As a natural building material, clay products need not be elaborately and expensively disposed of. They can be reused in two different ways: on the one hand by means of recycling, which means that clay is a sustainable building materials that is grounded and used in brick production, road construction, as tennis court surface or even as soil conditioners in agriculture. On the other hand, old bricks and tiles can be reused for new purposes.