Choices for Selecting Sustainable Building Materials

A resident of Montgomery, Texas, William “Bill” Starkey served as CEO of Starkey Construction in Tacoma, Washington, for over 35 years. William Starkey also has the knowledge and hands-on experience with constructing “green” buildings, which uses sustainable building materials.

Sustainable building materials are essential if you want to make an eco-friendly structure like a green building. Toxicity, performance, and the environmental life cycle are just a couple of things to consider when selecting sustainable building materials. What makes a building “green” is using smart-window glass, bamboo flooring, and eco-friendly insulation.

Eco-friendly insulation, like hemp insulation, sufficiently cuts down on energy usage for heating and cooling. In addition, bamboo flooring can be placed sporadically throughout a house. By using bamboo flooring over traditional wood flooring, the rate of deforestation for trees reduces since it takes trees on average 25 years to grow versus just 3 years for bamboo to grow.

Furthermore, using smart-window glass can save on costs related to using air condition and heating. During the summer months, the smart-window glass turns translucent to block any heating wavelengths that may require an air conditioning unit to be used too much. Conversely, the smart-glass windows turn transparent during winter seasons to allow the sunlight to heat the house.