Building & Renovation in France: Green Renovation
If you’re determined to make your home as green as possible, you need to check building products’ credentials, says Mary Hall
I recently heard a British lady proudly describing the natural paints and thermal insulation used in the renovation of her farmhouse, the high quality of her triple glazing and how green she felt they had become. She then drove off in her 4x4 on a fivehour round trip to collect her husband from his weekly commute by air to London. Truly a green lifestyle? You decide.
In this article I want to raise some questions about the green renovation bandwagon and socalled environmentally friendly building products. Green issues are now in mainstream politics and markets, they are no longer the reserve of sandal-wearing ex-hippies, but solid information on the full environmental costs and benefits of many products can be hard to find. I do not claim to have the answers.
Type ‘natural thermal insulation’ or ‘isolation naturel’ into Google and you will find companies claiming to sell environmentally-sound, thermally-efficient insulation materials such as wool, recycled newspapers, jute, softwood chippings and flax. Lots of claims are made as to the sustainability of the source materials but it’s often hard to check them out. Little is said about the manufacturing processes and transport.
If you buy insulation made from sheep’s wool, for example, has it collected air miles on its journey from New Zealand? How does it get to the builder’s merchant, by train or lorry? Are you going to collect it in your 4x4 doing 25mpg? Were the sheep managed in an animalfriendly way? The RSPCA's Freedom Food labelling system deals with animal welfare in the UK food chain but what about your sheared sheep? Are they subjected to nasty chemical dips? If you are a nonmeat eater, you might want to find out how far the wool insulation business is related to the meat industry.
Some insulation comes from crops, making it sound green and clean. But is it? Where are the crops grown and how – are they genetically modified or subjected to lots of pesticide sprays? Are massive plantations destroying biodiversity? Are third world farmers being exploited? To find out, you need to ask questions and it’s not always easy to find out who to ask and whose answers can be trusted.
Window on the world
While on the subject of thermal insulation, let’s think about windows.Well-fitting doubleglazed units are designed to reduce heat loss (and minimise heat gain from hot summer weather). The choice of products is huge, but some firms make more effort to be environmentally friendly than others. Not all firms use timber sources accredited by the FSC – the Forest Stewardship Council – which sets international standards for responsible forest management. Some claim that their synthetic materials such as PVC are recyclable without giving rise to harmful emissions. So, if you want new, environmentally-sound windows, you need to check the small print.
The alternative approach would be to ask yourself if you really need new windows at all – old-fashioned, make do and mend. This has been updated (some might say hijacked) and turned into ‘conscious consuming’ or the ‘buy nothing’ method. The argument goes that if something serves its purpose and functions reasonably well, then don’t buy a new replacement for it, and when you do have to buy a replacement, make sure the old item is reused or recycled.
If your existing windows are in reasonable condition, perhaps needing a bit of putty, a coat of wood stain and a little adjustment to the hinges, it probably makes both financial and environmental sense to smarten them up, even if they are single-glazed.
Making, transporting, marketing and fitting any type of window uses raw materials and energy which could be saved by a few hours’ work and a small cash outlay. If you do replace windows, any decent old ones could be given to a salvage yard (the charity Emmaus might have a depot near you) or a gardener might want them for use as a cold frame.
Inside the old windows, thick curtains would be a good idea to help with thermal insulation. They are also useful for doorways, draughty corridors or stairwells. You can buy thermal curtain linings – but watch out, many use manmade fibres with foam backing, so you might want to check their green credentials. The conscious consuming approach would be to find some old curtains and re-use them. The halfway green person might buy pretty new curtains and use old ones as linings behind.
Unscrupulous scammers have been keen to jump on the green bandwagon, making spurious claims for the environmental benefits of a wide range of products and services. If you are serious about making a renovation project as green as your time and resources allow, you need to verify the green credentials of anything you are thinking of buying. Don’t accept anything at face value, dig a bit deeper. The internet is a great research tool, but remember to switch off your computer when you’re not using it – appliances on standby eat electricity.
Mary Hall is a chartered surveyor who lives in south-west
France Tel: 0033 (0)5 65 24 66 46 Email: hall.bureau@neuf.fr