To build an environment-friendly facility, building designers select the most ecologically-viable materials, products and methodologies that release lesser harmful substances to the environment. The advocacy of the green building movement is that the lesser carbon “footprints” are left in the environment in the course of everyday living, the lesser the damage wrought to the environment by man’s daily activities.
The use of green materials such as concrete, and environment-friendly applications such as concrete finishes, ensure that the completed facility is energy-efficient, emits lesser toxic substances, and is able to apply the environmentalist dictum: reduce, reuse and recycle.
Indeed, there are already many eco-friendly construction materials in the market these days. Builders have also acquired the best practices for green building projects. In varying degrees, these products and practices are all effective in the construction of green facilities. However, on the issue of sustainability of any green building design, concrete materials and concrete finishes are by far the best choices for longevity and endurance available to green builders.
Concrete finishes are not only environment-friendly and energy-efficient, the base concrete material is known to last for very long periods of time. It can stand impervious to physical damages, unlike other eco-friendly materials such as wood. It is also resistant to degradation caused by fire, water and the weather. This is a valuable property of concrete finishes because, when building materials have longer life spans, they incur lesser replacement costs to the facility. The sustainability of the green building is therefore assured with enduring concrete finishes, to the satisfaction of earth-friendly building tenants.
