survival strategy for existing buildings

The Property Council of Australia recently developed a toolkit to assist owners of commercial buildings to improve the sustainability of existing buildings, many of which are heavy carbon emitters. The toolkit includes a six-step plan and a list of 200 design initiatives to help plan building upgrades, and demonstrates that significant improvements can often be made with minimal cost. It was presented last month at the Property Council's Existing Buildings Solutions Summit in Sydney.

I was reminded in a recent email from David Latimer of Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center that environmental issues around old buildings are not limited to energy, resources and carbon emissions. Many buildings pose health risks from materials that have been used in their construction, and this is an ongoing concern, despite identification of health problems years ago. I myself worked for a while in a government building in Ontario that incorporated asbestos, and this was removed while I was there. (Which puzzles me, since my understanding is that asbestos is generally benign as long as it is left undisturbed. Wouldn't it have been better to leave it in place as long as the building was occupied?)

I hope nobody is installing asbestos these days, but there are plenty of other materials with known health impacts still going into new buildings; from pvc containing phthalates, to wood and carpet products using formaldehyde, and paints giving off VOCs. And, as the MAAC points out, the impacts extend way back to the people involved in mining and manufacture of the products - it's not just the end user who is at risk. The new building evaluation tools such as Green Star will help raise awareness of these risks by penalising buildings that use unhealthy products. For now these are entirely voluntary standards not enforced in most building regulations, but as countries tighten up on environmental impacts of buildings, related health issues should also be addressed.

It is interesting to note that there has been comment that the Green Building Council of Australia should not single out pvc in the Green Star tool, since many building materials have some level of toxicity, but rather define key performance criteria guiding how material is used in buildings: "All products should be selected on the basis of their fitness for purpose, life cycle cost and environmental performance for each application, and reputable science and life cycle assessment should be used to assess environmental impacts." The Council's response is sensible:

To minimise risk to human health from buildings, credits focus on irritants/allergens (i.e., VOCs, equipment fumes and mould), carcinogens and mutagens (i.e. formaldehyde, equipment fumes, PVC and asbestos), and teratogens (agents that cause abnormal cell masses during foetal growth causing physical birth defects, i.e. formaldehyde). While the source of mould is humidity and thus can be addressed through the design of the ventilation system, the source of the problems linked to PVC is, understandably, the material itself.

The GBCA is considering expanding this credit to cover toxicity more broadly. The GBCA would welcome industry input with respect to other sources of carcinogens and mutagens within the Australian built environment, with the prospect of potentially addressing additional source control measures within Green Star.

Comments

[Dennis]

The Mesothelioma & Asbestos folks are not exactly who you might think they are. Check this out and draw your own conclusions:

http://samadhisoft.com/2008/09/18/mesothelioma-asbestos-awareness-center/

Cheers!

Dennis
samadhisoft.com

[Rory]

Thanks for the tip, Dennis. I came to the same conclusion when I wrote this post - Latimer had approached me in exactly the same way, and the site he represents is clearly just trying to drum up litigation business, and I don't support that at all. But I didn't use his material, just acknowledged the spark he gave to my train of thought, so I kept the link there. But you have now alerted my readers, so thanks for that.