Even though our membranes are made of flexible PVC, and therefore not usually considered a Green product, the following arguments can be made:
- Newmat is extremely light and weighs only 5 lb of PVC for 100 square feet of area covered,
- Newmat is 100% recyclable.
- Newmat is considered non-toxic upon burning.
- It takes far less energy and creates far less waste to produce Newmat than any other ceiling system.
- Because of its light weight, it takes far less energy to transport Newmat than any other ceiling system.
- Because Newmat is custom fabricated to fit each application, there is no waste to be discarded from job sites as opposed to any other ceiling system (drywall, acoustical tiles, etc.), which produce quite a lot of waste.
- It takes a lot less energy and/or manpower to install Newmat compared to any other ceiling system.
- Newmat is a finished product which does not produce any dust and does not require painting or repainting. This will eliminate the dust produced during the sanding of the compound on drywall ceilings and or the dust released in the air from mineral fiber tiles. It will also save the environment from the negative aspects of paints used on drywall ceilings over time.
- All aluminum components, such as perimeter framings for the custom-fabricated panels, custom fabricated C-channel extrusions, and perimeter aluminum extrusions for field stretched areas contain 40% post-industrial recycled content and 29% post-consumer recycled content.
- All custom-fabricated membranes contain 42% pre-consumer recycled content.
Based on the above, it is clear that the Newmat Stretch Ceiling Systems will have a far less negative effect on the environment, both short term and long term, than any other conventional ceiling system and therefore should not be easily discarded as a valuable ceiling option when designing a Green building application.
Newmat has been fortunate to be chosen as part of many LEED certified projects, a list of which can be found in the Professionals section named
Newmat has been fortunate to be chosen as part of many LEED certified projects, a list of which can be found in the Professionals section named
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Next Article (Does Vinyl Have a Place in Sustainable Design?) serves to explore the facts —and fallacies— surrounding how vinyl is produced, and what happens to it once it has entered the waste stream — by Tak Abe.