The Need for Aluminum in Buildings

by Jonathan McGaha | June 1, 2014 12:00 am

Aluminum is an essential element in today’s building and construction market. Highly recyclable, lightweight and durable, the metal is a key aspect of green building efforts taking place across the country and around the globe. And, yet, efforts are now underway that would unfairly undermine not only the use of aluminum but also other recyclable metals in the buildings of tomorrow.

A new Product Category Rule (PCR) on building windows being developed by the nonprofit environmental group Earthsure might unfairly penalize recyclable materials in the construction market and actually encourage landfilling of building products at the end of life. We are calling for a reconsideration of the rule to ensure that all building materials can compete on a level playing field. This isn’t only the fair thing to do for the metal construction industry; it’s also the right thing to do for the environment.

First, some history. Following the discovery of the Hall-Héroult mass production process, aluminum moved into many markets in the early part of the 20th century including transmission wire, bicycles, automobiles and street trolleys. Building and construction was initially a small market for the metal-primarily oriented toward decorative detailing and art deco structures. But in 1930 the construction of the Empire State Building changed the game.

For the first time, major structural components, including the interior and famous spire of what was then the tallest building in the world, were made using aluminum. The metal’s lightweight enabled construction of the building in record time. At one point, the velocity of construction reached more than one story per day-unheard of at the time.

It is no exaggeration to say that the modern skyscraper would not have been possible without the widespread adoption of aluminum building materials.

And today, the metal is widely accepted as a key element of green building certification efforts like U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED program. Aluminum intensive LEED-certified buildings have won awards for Platinum, Gold and Best-in-State sustainability across the country. In fact, the Capitol Area East End Complex in Sacramento, Calif., was one of the first LEED-certified buildings in the country partly due to its high-performance, non-reflective aluminum curtainwall that conserves energy by maximizing the use of sunlight.

Aluminum is an essential element in keeping buildings green. Here’s why:

• Recyclability: Aluminum is among the most easily and widely recycled building materials. Better yet, the metal can be recycled over and over again without losing any of its fundamental characteristics or quality. The recycled content of many aluminum building products is estimated at well over 50 percent and a study by the Netherland’s Delft University of Technology found that a full 95 percent of aluminum used in buildings today is recycled back into the system at the end of its useful life.

• Optimization in Energy Consumption: Aluminum building envelopes, such as curtainwalls, skylights and windows working in concert with sunshades, screens and indoor-outdoor air exchange devices, can provide optimized energy performance in all seasons and weather conditions. This allows for comprehensive energy savings. Envelope systems like this can also be easily and automatically controlled by building intelligence systems, which is particularly unique for large buildings like commercial complexes and skyscrapers. No alternative material can serve this function without the use of aluminum products. In addition, cool roofs and other structures made out of aluminum and other metals can improve a building’s insulation, dramatically lowering heating and cooling bills.

• Lightweight Durability: Aluminum’s exceptionally high strength-to-weight ratio makes it especially useful as a structural element in buildings-reducing the need for other materials like cement and plastics. The metal’s low weight means that less energy must be used to ship and move it around during the building process. And its corrosion-resistance allows aluminum to serve its purpose in a building for decades with little to no upkeep.

The advantages of using aluminum in construction are clear and not disputed. And these advantages have been widely accepted and incorporated by the USGBC and other groups.

That’s why it was disappointing to see a recent draft of the PCR on building windows that would unfairly penalize the use of highly recycled materials like aluminum and other metals.

The windows PCR, being developed on behalf of several window and glazing trade associations, misses the mark in several key respects. It violates the spirit of cradle-to-grave, life cycle thinking and would actually encourage the landfilling of building materials at the end of life. Clearly, this is the wrong approach.

There is no disputing that Earthsure has a long and successful history developing PCRs for various products. However, those rules were all for products that are by and large landfilled at the end of life. These previous PCRs-and the proposed windows rule-rely on a method called “cut-off” for end-of-life material management. This method assesses the energy required to manage the material at end of life, but does not give credit for recycling. Using this approach, materials that are landfilled following their useful life can artificially achieve a lower environmental footprint than materials that are recycled. Since so much of the aluminum and other metals used in buildings today are recycled at high rates, this approach unfairly penalizes metal building material and can lead to a four-time over-estimation of life cycle energy use.

The Aluminum Association has provided comments to Earthsure highlighting these problems and disputing their methodology. We are calling on them to reconsider their approach-consistent with their mission to “undertake and disseminate comprehensive, fact-based research for use in the development of responsible environmental policy, programs and decisions.” I’d encourage you to learn more by visiting www.aluminum.org/WindowsPCR[1].

Let’s make sure all materials can compete on a level playing field and green metals like aluminum are not unfairly penalized.

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Heidi Brock is the president and CEO of The Aluminum Association, and Paul-Henri Chevalier is the president of Jupiter Aluminum Corp., Schiller Park, Ill., and is chairman of The Aluminum Association Building and Construction Committee. To learn more, visit www.aluminum.org[2].

Photo courtesy of SAPA.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/the-need-for-aluminum-in-buildings/

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