Techniques evolve for sustainable construction

McGough Construction created forms like this one in its White Bear Lake warehouse and transported them to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts construction site in downtown St. Paul. The forms were then filled with concrete and assembled on the site. (Submitted photo: McGough)

In the sustainability world the discussion has largely focused on renewable power and improving architecture and building infrastructure to reduce energy use.

A quieter part of the sustainability story is the evolution in construction techniques and materials acquisition that reduce waste, energy and various inefficiencies at building sites.

Rick Carter, senior vice president of LHB Corp.s Minneapolis office, said green construction techniques play only a small role in achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the Washington, D.C.-based United States Green Building Council.

The USGBC works on a point system, and most of those awarded come from a buildings design, location, orientation, and its materials, to a smaller degree.

Lean manufacturing, in contrast, wins no points for contractors but contributes to less energy expended at a site. I think this is an important element, especially if you have a general contractor who is knowledgeable and able to pull something off in terms of sustainability, Carter said.

For contractors, a strategy for saving time and materials can lead to higher profitability and the good feeling of not creating unnecessary waste. Heres a look at five techniques that are having the greatest impact on sustainable building construction.

Prefabricating materials in controlled environments

Constructing as much of a structure in a controlled environment as possible has improved the quality of buildings and resulted in less trash, said Spencer Finseth, principal of Minneapolis-based Greiner Construction.

Being able to cut materials precisely decreases waste and creates buildings that are strong enough to allow contractors to use wood framing as high as five stories, he said.

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Techniques evolve for sustainable construction