— continued from page 41 Exterior: If it is porous and the ground is wet, then the insulation value will disappear. Interior: A conditioned crawl space can help to control the humidity, but insulation must be installed properly against this part of a building. Mineral wool is porous, but more conventional and be both in and outside of a stem wall. EPS has higher carbon footprint, but can be under a slab (specify compressive strength) or on a wall, inside or out. Foam glass is not yet conventional but replaces gravel.11 3. Work with contractors you trust and clients who trust you (the second part comes easily when you start with the first part). This can go either chicken or egg first, but if you are adamant that your clients will be better served by working with a contractor on your team, then you will all more easily achieve the clients’ goals. This works very well, most of the time. If you do not have a contractor you trust in your circle, then reach out to different certification programs to find out who in your region is educated and interested. The construction industry is not as savvy about embodied carbon as they are about energy efficiency, in general, but EMU provides affordable contractor training for Passive House methods that is very well done. Though they do not focus on embodied energy, they educate with various types of materials and methods, so contractors are exposed to all the options. 4. Take the easy way out, reduce friction. We must circumvent the “spray-foam as a do-it-all in one strategy.” Embrace membranes, tapes, and caulks, and then support your contractor through the “how to” – reduce the friction they feel about learning a new system. Take time to think through sequencing of installation of framing and membrane components and get their input. A little planning goes a long way toward reducing labor on site. Once you do it will be second-nature, just like spray foam is currently for many. Also: avoid gable trusses! They are really challenging to air-seal with membranes and tapes. 5. Take responsibility. Your client hired your company for many reasons and they do not need to know how all the sausage gets made. They probably don’t care about the sausage as much as you think they do, so just do what you do. 6. Forget about embodied carbon (when talking with contractors and especially clients). Most people don’t get it yet. Someday this will be mainstream terminology, but until then, our job is far easier when we speak the same language as clients. Communicating about a healthy indoor environment is something that everyone will be on board with from the beginning. It just happens that many high carbon materials also contribute large loads of toxins to our environment and potentially indoor air. Healthy materials is a parallel route leading to the same destination (unless we’re talking about manufactured antimicrobials, but that’s another story). 7. Just do less harm: if everyone would start building high performance straw and hemp commercial and institutional buildings and singing Kumbaya tomorrow, that would be amazing. In the meantime, use your intuition to evaluate what you can bite off now and do it without looking back. Use each failure to learn and improve. b Credit New Frameworks 1 https://blueprintforbetter.org/articles/design-resources-to-help-stop-climate-change/ 2 https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/report---whiet-paper.html 3 https://www.buildinggreen.com/news-article/avoiding-global-warming-impact- insulation 4 https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/reducing-refrigerant-leaks-from- heat-pumps 5 https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2021/04/28/a-new-take-on-insulating-a-roof 6 https://foursevenfive.com/blog/the-ten-golden-rules-for-foam-free-flat-roofs/ 7 https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/insulation/smart-vapor-retarders- for-walls-and-roofs 8 https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/insulation/284-in-favor-of-wood- fiber-insulation 9 https://www.timberhp.com/ 10 https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/a-case-for-double-stud-walls 11 https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/insulation/foamglas?adobe_ mc=MCMID%3D90569524272236196302559584395362591500%7CMCORGID% 3D3AED27E253DB1E4C0A490D4E%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1638747205 42 AIA IDAHO ARCHITECTURE | 2022-23 | aiaidaho.com
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