These New Products Keep Wood In The Forest Yet Capture Its Strengths

This home in Houston features ACRE shiplap siding finished with a clear coat for extra protection.

Across the globe there is pressure to build more housing. At the same time, damages to the climate from the built environment are highly visible as more severe and more frequent weather events are destroying the homes we live in.

These issues are strengthening the need to manufacture more circular building products that have a longer lifespan. Innovative new products take a sharp look at where and how we use wood in construction, and then reimagine it to be more sustainable.

For starters, building material manufacturer Modern Mill introduced ACRE, a 100% tree-free, recyclable product made from upcycled rice hulls, as a sustainable replacement for wood in home siding, decking, trim, furniture and millwork.

Every year in the U.S., 20 billion pounds of rice are produced. Almost half is exported, but the rest is used in the states, and every single one of those rice hulls head to landfills. Modern Mill uses those hulls to manufacture ACRE in a zero-waste manufacturing facility in Fernwood, Mississippi that are distributed nationwide via two-step distribution.

ACRE is 50% rice hulls by volume, mixed with a resin that includes PVC for performance and durability, and free of phenol, formaldehydes, adhesives, wood pulp, forever chemicals, and is low VOC. So, using and handling ACRE doesn’t carry the threat of negative health impacts.

“The husk’s goal in rice is to protect it from weather and pests, so that can transcend into a great building product that can protect your home,” said Kim Guimond, the company’s chief marketing officer.

In addition to sustainability, ACRE outperforms other industry materials by being resistant to water, weather, pests, rot and splintering. Plus, the hulls give ACRE similar warmth and workability to wood with extra durability that could last longer and save repair costs.

ACRE keeps the rice grain and it can be stained, making it the only composite that can be stained. Plus, the product doesn’t need a cap stock. It can be sanded and stained same as the rest to be made into sheet goods and milled into building products and used anywhere wood can be used minus structural components.

Other properties of the rice husks improve installation, such as better screw and nail retention.

“ACRE is circular product and really competing with wood in all wood’s applications,” Guimond said. “The price is below teak, old growth wood, cedar, and on par with wood composite products. We feel like we have it as an undiscovered gem for the architect community facing proclamations to end deforestation.”

John Cunniffe is the owner of John Cunniffe Architects on Long Island and has used ACRE on an 1800s residential renovation after researching product to find something that could last beyond 30 years and do justice to the historical properties he was working with that have trim and scroll work exposed to a saltwater environment.

“It acts and performs like wood in a lot of ways,” Cunniffe said. “I could have done all of what I’m doing with 100% PVC, but we need to pick the right materials in the environment.”

Dave Malmquist is owner of Malmquist Builders and also used ACRE for its longevity where his projects face wind and wind driven rain, so homes need to be sealed tightly.

“On the coast, the homes take a beating with the weather, so we need a product that can sustain for many years,” he said. “Another key is the texture on the product. Other products are smooth and this has grain texture. We’re always trying to reduce carbon footprint and be thoughtful on how we are impacting, while also looking at constructability and how it performs. It’s good to see the options out there and build in a way that didn’t exist 25 years ago.”

He found the cost of ACRE to be comparable to the product he used on previous projects.

Another wood replacement in the flooring space can be carpet. Specifying a carpet can quickly funnel down into functionality and style before sustainability, and carpet isn’t known for being environmentally friendly.

Interface is changing that with the introduction of a carpet tile that is carbon negative. The Interface Embodied Beauty Collection is carbon negative when measured from cradle to gate, or from raw materials to manufacturing. The carpet tiles combine with a backing that has bio-based materials that store carbon with specialty yarns and tufting processes.

Urban Machine uses robotics to clean wood so it can be reused in new proejcts or in dowel laminated ... [+] panels.

Urban Machine is using high tech robotics to reuse wood and protect virgin lumber in forests. It can quickly and efficiently remove metal fasteners from used wood materials to recycle them for new uses.

The company is partnered with All Bay Mill & Lumber to offer prefabricated dowel laminated timber panels that can be used in housing construction. The panel can be installed in less time than gypsum or steel stud systems and is positioned to have visual and acoustical benefits as well as a lower cost compared to cross laminated timber.

Founder Eric Law says the best application of the product would be for partition and demising walls where clients want the look of wood, along with the sustainability benefits.

In addition, the Berkeley location of Ashby Lumber has an Urban Machine display to sell reclaimed lumber to local homeowners and trade professionals.

Plantd competes with wood-based products with a grass-based, carbon-negative panel. The manufacturing process locks 70% of its carbon inside the product, such as wall sheathing, roof decking, and subflooring.

Claims from Plantd’s website say it can produce the same amount of material with better quality by using nine times less land by using renewable grass.

The company’s goal is to disrupt the U.S. building panels market that it calculates at $26B, and to disrupt the $280B global engineered wood products market with a stronger, more moisture-resistant, carbon-negative product that can be sold at the same price.

Most of us associate bamboo with rapid growth and pandas, but BamCore is using it to reduce harmful emissions and present an alternative to traditional construction materials with high carbon emissions.

Bamboo has brag-worthy construction properties. It can be twice as stiff and strong as wood, which can reduce the amount of material needed in structural loads.

When compared to wood used in building frames, it also is up to six times more efficient at capturing and storing carbon.

BamCore panels create the structure of this Concord Homes townhome project in Utah.

One bamboo stalk can grow up to 20 meters in one year, whereas wood takes more than 25 years. Quantis International reports that producing the fiber for an average single family home requires 78% less land when using timber bamboo versus traditional timber.​

McKinsey & Company reported that by 2030, demand for green materials could increase by up to 4.5 times fueled by companies’ commitments to reduce emissions and user demand.

The report offers suggestions to materials suppliers to reevaluate the business case for decarbonization and its pace to prepare for future regulatory requirements.

With new, innovative materials, opportunities to lower the built environment’s impact on the climate, without a significant cost increase, are expanding.

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