The Future of Building is Ancient History

If you are feeling queasy from the rabid feeding-frenzy of companies green washing everything from cars to coal, you are not alone! There is a lot of noise out there and it's easy to get lost in it all. While labels such as Cradle-to-Cradle, Energy Star, and LEED have been created to ensure the legitimacy of claims to greenness, they don't necessarily recognize size or scale of eco-improvements.

That's why it is so exciting to witness a product as deceptively simple as 'packaged earth' shaking up a giant like the worldwide construction industry ($5.6 Billion in the U.S. alone). This 'packaged earth' is manufactured by a company called Integrity Block based in Los Altos, CA, and is more commonly referred to as rammed earth, the same technology humans have used to build homes since the cradle of civilization. There is just one big catch. Integrity Block has invented a method to manufacture rammed earth into concrete block molds that meet the same compressive strength and performance standards required for standard concrete block. If that sounds like a foreign language to you, then please allow me to translate: Integrity Block discovered a way to make concrete blocks out of dirt. "So what?" you ask. Well, for starters concrete is second only to water as the most consumed substance on Earth, and produces 5-6% of all greenhouse gases worldwide. Imagine cutting that out by simply using all-natural earth for construction. Does that mean the next time we stop by a local Wall Mart we will be greeted by geodesic dome-shaped building with solar panels? Mmmm...probably not. However, it does mean that thanks to this new technology, big-box retailers, governments and just about anybody contemplating a building project, large or small, can choose to use rammed earth blocks instead of concrete, taking simple steps towards creating a carbon-neutral building.