The Next Generation of Residential Construction: Adoption of Green Building Programs, Environmentally Certified Wood Products and the Transparency of Environmental Friendliness

Abstract

The downturn in the housing market, in 2006, created a need to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the residential construction industry to learn what drivers will influence the next generation of homebuilding. As the housing market continues its recovery, we must seek to understand the real and perceived weaknesses and strengths of the home building industry. Architects, as the visionaries in home design, have played an important role in the industry as innovators of new concepts and designs. They typically stipulate building materials and strongly influence energy efficiency and quality of construction. Green building programs were designed to bridge the gap between traditional construction methods and innovative building techniques and materials. Adopting a green building framework will allow architects to design homes that meet energy efficiency requirements and air quality standards, utilize renewable and recyclable materials, reuse existing structures or foundations, and minimize water use to produce environmentally friendly homes and buildings. By meeting specific criteria within green building programs (i.e., United States Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes and the National Home Builders Association’s National Green Building Standard (NGBS)), homes can be certified as meeting current environmental standards for “green construction.” While these green building initiatives are relatively new, having gained prominence in the last two decades, new updates are published every few years. The most recent update for both programs occurred in 2018, and the latest version of the LEED for Homes program (version 4.1) is currently under review. Updates usually require more rigorous methods of auditing a building’s performance or authorize new materials and methods for certification. Wood and wood-based materials (e.g., plywood, oriented strand board) are common in residential construction, with most wood products used in the United States coming from domestic forests. Reacting to the recent push for sustainable forest management, forest certification standards such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) allow for third-party audits of forest lands to determine if sustainable forest management and regeneration methods are being met. The FSC and SFI also allow for the logs and wood products taken from certified forests to be labeled and marketed as environmentally certified. Environmentally certified wood products (ECWPs) are eligible to receive green building points when used in a certified home if they meet the requirements of the green building program. This research adopts a multi-level approach to identify the factors that influence architects’ specification of ECWPs. In particular, this research explores if there are unique demographic or psychographic characteristics that promote architects’ adoption and use of ECWPs as well as their participation in residential green building programs (GBPs). This research is based on a survey of 385 U.S. architects who participated in residential construction projects, and who were asked questions related to their awareness and use of GBPs and ECWPs. An analysis of the survey data found that there are regional differences between architects who utilize GBPs and ECWPs. Additionally, the results suggest that many architects who use GBPs and ECWPs have an inherent environmental orientation when specifying building materials for a residential project. The most significant factors influencing architects’ use of ECWPs was whether or not they had previously participated in a green building program or had used other green building products and technologies. To help determine the environmental friendliness of wood-based building materials, comparisons were made with similar products made from steel and concrete through a life cycle analysis (LCA). By comparing the results of products’ LCA’s, we can assess whether renewable materials (e.g., wood) have lower environmental impacts relative to non-renewable materials (e.g., steel and concrete). A functional unit comparative LCA analysis was conducted for structural beams made from wood, steel, and concrete utilizing a “cradle-to-installed” methodology. Based on the results of the comparative analyses, wooden glue-laminated beams required 139% and 357% less primary energy during their manufacture than steel and concrete beams, respectively. This research will help identify innovative architects who are more likely to stipulate innovative home design methods and environmentally sustainable building materials. This research also helps to provide vital LCA data that can help wood product manufacturers demonstrate the environmental performance of wood building materials through the development of environmental product declaration information based on life cycle assessment (LCA) protocols.