GREEN-HOME CONSTRUCTION ADVANCES
Having been involved in green construction for two decades, long before most even knew of such an alternative, I can finally see the general populations interest growing.
One has to wonder why it took so long, but better late than never, I always say. We are all familiar with stick and frame, and cement and brick, but most are not familiar with earthen construction.
Adobe is one of the oldest of earthen construction alternatives, but for the most part, you have to be in New Mexico or Arizona to be familiar with this thousands of years old building system.
I have been working with all forms of alternative construction system looking for the perfect Green-Home alternative. With so many systems on the market now, I have to wonder why Mother Earth is not leading the industry yet?
What better product is there other than Mother Earth, good old dirt, the only 5,000 plus year old system which has proven itself as the best and lowest cost building material ever used. So why is it that most have never heard of it? Perhaps it is because America is only a few hundred years old as far as construction goes, not thousands of years old as in the middle east as example.
Having gone head to head in frustration with building codes in NA, it makes you wonder how smart these people are? Here we have a 5,000 year old proven building product, yet few areas of the country will approve it other than NM and AZ for the most part. Sure makes you wonder why.
From my experience, it is simply that these building departments are all to lazy to look beyond the obvious. Stick and frame is conventional, they have been dealing with it forever, so it needs no thinking, just follow the same old same old antiquated codes and it is safe for them. God forbid if they had to think outside the box.
To give an example, we went to dozens of engineering firms to have our engineered enviro-bricks tested, and in every case they passed all codes, but not one engineer would stamp their seal of approval on product. Well, finally one admitted the cement industry was very powerful, and he feared repercussions from industry. How foolish I thought that an industry would be against an environmental alternative, a pollution solution no less given cement industry is one of the largest polluters in the construction industry.
Well, it all started to make sense now, the cement industry was just too powerful, and although we have a better product, for less cost, it was rejected in most areas for fear, not that it was inferior, but simple fear. I started to wonder how many other earthen construction companies were experiencing the same resistance?
Simply put, this is the time to accept earthen construction in every part of the world, not just third world countries who live and breath earthen construction for hundreds of decades, not a couple hundred years as is the case in NA markets. When people see an engineered interlocking brick, which is hurricane proof, insect proof, bullet proof and waterproof, makes you wonder why everyone wouldnt want an earth brick home or business. Green is now becoming more in demand, so for those who do care about the environment, think gree, think Mother Earth, think dirt, think Earth-Bricks.
Thank you, Mike Sullivan ECT, Inc. Enviro-Bricks.com
