The Benefits of Eco-Friendly Insulation
Published on March 21, 2018
As modern homeowners, we’re not just looking to improve our investments, but to make a lasting impact on the environment by choosing to use environmentally conscious products when renovating and retrofitting our homes. The benefits of eco-friendly insulation are similar to those of traditional insulation types, with the added value of being safer for the earth and your family.
The Benefits of Eco-Friendly Insulation
Adding insulation to your home is the best way to lower your carbon footprint because the added protection from the elements means you use less energy to heat your home and retain your air conditioning longer. But there are other benefits of eco-friendly insulation too:
Safe and Sustainable Materials:
Natural and sustainable are buzzwords across the consumer goods spectrum and for good reason. One of the best benefits of eco-friendly insulation is that they generally contain less harmful chemicals, such as formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Most cause less skin, eye, and upper respiratory irritation, and many are made of recycled materials - diverting waste from landfills.
Lower Manufacturing Costs:
Embodied energy - the manufacturing cost of producing something - is very high in some insulation types such as fiberglass, which can take up to ten times for energy to create than cellulose insulation. Environmentally friendly materials such as cork, wool, or even shredded denim require minute amounts in comparison.
Energy Savings:
The best of the benefits of eco-friendly insulation is that it helps you be green elsewhere because better insulation means you need to burn less gas or fuel to run your furnace. Additionally, green alternatives can also provide a much higher R-value per square inch!
Popular Types of Green Insulation
Cellulose:
This common eco-friendly insulation material is made of recycled paper products. As it decomposes in a landfill, paper can release harmful greenhouse gasses. When it is recycled into insulation, cellulose is one of the safest choices for someone looking to reduce toxic products in their home.
Fiberglass:
This other popular insulation material can come in a number of different compositions and is most frequently used blown-in or as batts. As the name suggests, it is glass-sand-blown into fibrous strands and makes an efficient insulation layer that will last for decades.
Sheep Wool:
There’s a reason nomads, settlers, and people across the world have been using sheep’s wool to warm their bodies, cover tents, and insulate their homes for centuries - it works! Fire, water, and mold resistant, sheep’s wool makes a superb home insulation material and is gaining popularity among people looking for environmentally friendly options for their homes. Wool has evolved over centuries to keep sheep warm, dry, and safe from the elements, and it often has little or no value to farmers in the commercial farming industry, who often have to shear every six months to keep the animals healthy. Repurposed as insulation, wool can help reduce the need to constantly adjust your indoor temperature, saving you energy and money.
Go Green
The more we use our buying power as consumers to choose green, the more products and services will be available for us, and the lesser our impact on the environment will be. The benefits of eco-friendly insulation rival that of traditional insulation materials and can offer us a new way of making positive choices for our families and the earth.
