Executive Summary:
There are many viable approaches to green building design, from harnessing nature's principles, such as termite and zebra climate control, to using bamboo, which will be discussed in a future article. One such approach involves transforming end-of-life bottles into glass foam, which can then be used as a structural material in buildings. Glass foam not only provides insulation and moisture protection, but it also creates functionality and value from discarded glass and can be adapted for multiple uses. Glass often ends up in landfills, when it can be continuously reused in various forms. Besides being a building material, it can also be used as a growing medium in hydroponics. Glass recycling thus becomes a platform for multiple products and cash flows, as well as for job creation.
Keywords: Green building design, glass foam, insulation, housing, resource efficiency, hydroponics, landfill, cash flow, jobs.
Breakthroughs in green building design: It all started in a factory
If I had mastered mathematics in high school, I would have pursued a career in building design. Ideas flow freely in my mind, and although I never had a knack for drawing, action ensures the implementation of these visions. I was first directly involved in a major construction project when I took over a small Belgian detergent manufacturer on the verge of bankruptcy. I revived the company by resolutely opting to build Europe's first eco-friendly factory. It was a gamble to spend 100 million Belgian francs when the company's turnover was only 120 million at the time. In October 1992, when Carlo Ripa di Meana, the European Commissioner for the Environment, and Lester Brown, the founder and then president of the Worldwatch Institute, inaugurated the factory, CNN featured it in a prime-time news report. This secured its place in the annals of eco-design. The building booklet was distributed free of charge and described, using open sources, all the materials, costs and decisions made.
A tropical hospital
Two years later, I had the privilege of overseeing the design and construction of the first self-sufficient hospital in Las Gaviotas, Vichada, Colombia, under the direction of Paolo Lugari. The transition from an industrial wooden structure in a temperate climate to a public service building in a hot, humid, tropical climate provided the contrast that allowed me to quickly learn how to design ecological buildings using available resources and local climatic conditions. The team enjoyed complete freedom from regulations and even insurance companies, but faced strict yet ambitious goals: to become the first hospital self-sufficient in electricity and water with a budget limited to $300,000. The 15-person team had only one architect. The surgeon's room represented the greatest lesson in architectural design. Traditional wind tunnels were combined with underground tunnels and fitted with aluminum rods to condense moisture. The uninterrupted airflow through the ducts provided fresh, dry air with a humidity level always below 17%, without the use of pumps or energy, thanks to continuous negative pressure. Each system was powered by natural air currents. Carl-Göran Hedén, a member of the Club of Rome, introduced me to the Swedish architect Bengt Warne, who designed the "Envelope House" (also known as the "Nature House") capable of self-regulating temperature and humidity in a way similar to the hospital in Colombia. This exposure encouraged me to undertake a third breakthrough: the design and construction of the largest bamboo building in modern history. There was one catch: it had to be built with a German building permit. It is well known that German engineering and building codes are the most demanding in the world. Ms. Sabine Mpho, Director of Global Projects for Expo 2000, had followed ZERI's initiatives at the United Nations University thanks to Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, the rector at the time. She offered us the opportunity to exhibit pioneering examples of zero-emission businesses at the World Expo. When the seventh project was approved and accepted for the Expo, Sabine made a bold proposal: she suggested we build our own pavilion. Without consulting the team, I accepted the challenge.
A German building permit for a bamboo building
I immediately asked Simon Velez, the Colombian icon of bamboo architecture, to take charge of the design. With a phone call, Stephan Schmidtheiny, the Swiss philanthropist, was ready to pay the first bill for numerous expensive laboratory tests at German universities. The permitting process moved quickly. However, organizing the construction of two pavilions, one in Colombia and the other in Hanover, within 14 months, proved to be a crash course in building design and planning. Mario Calderon Rivera, president of the Manizales Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was the indispensable partner who single-handedly covered the costs of the Manizales bamboo pavilion, with support from Gabriel German Londoño and Nestor Buitrago. It still stands today and has become a symbol for the region. I took on the responsibility for the pavilion in Germany, which led to an invitation to be a visiting professor at the Politecnico di Torino, thanks to the tireless support of Professor Luigi Bistagnino. My experience working with wood in a temperate climate, on a hospital in the tropics, and on the largest bamboo structure of its time, gave me enough experience by 2000 to begin experimenting on my own. The construction of a bioclimatic house, "La Miñoca," in Manizales, Colombia, with the support of the Colombian architect Carolina Salazar Ocampo, became my personal benchmark. When guests of the newly built house complained in 2003 that the bedroom was too cold, I knew I had grasped the physics-based design options, and perhaps even taken them to an extreme.
The academic world began to take an interest in the project, starting with a surprise request from Roberto Peccei, Vice President for Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who wanted to give a lecture on my architectural experiments. Green building councils, from the United States to Australia and South Africa, began listening to some proposals. However, I wasn't an architect, I didn't speak the jargon, and so I approached design differently. My goal wasn't to create the best design, nor to make a fortune building, but to extend housing and design to a broader concept that could stimulate local economies and encourage communities to meet their own basic needs. A home is not just shelter; it's also water, food, health, energy, and the capacity to generate a large number of jobs.<sup>3</sup>
Scandinavian designs
Finding connections between architecture and other basic needs wasn't theoretically difficult, but I needed a place where I could see how innovations in architectural design stimulate clusters of new industries. I was proud to see that 250 new businesses had sprung up around the bamboo initiative in Colombia, creating around 7,000 new jobs. Later, I learned how Hang Doa and his team in Vietnam had built on the Colombian experience and developed the industry beyond our expectations, with an estimated 100,000 jobs and rapid growth in new areas like bamboo bicycles. I needed something deeper. At a workshop organized by Göran Carstedt with Peter Senge in Umeå, Sweden, I met Anders Nyquist, the Swedish architect who invented and implemented the EcoCycle House. Anders impressed me so much during our first meeting in 2004 that I changed my summer holiday travel plans with my sons to visit him and see Rumpan, the ecovillage he had envisioned and implemented since the 1960s. I had visited ecovillages around the world, inspired by Declan Kennedy's network, but I had never heard of this one. The fact that other villages hadn't recognized it sparked my interest even more. At Rumpan, I found proof that innovative building design can be cheaper, healthier, and build a community. It was also clear that Anders and his wife, Ingrid, were dedicated to what they had set out to do and had made it their business philosophy. What emerged was a network of innovators around Anders, who were also inspired by him and who pushed themselves beyond the status quo. What I discovered was so refreshing that it gave me a deeper understanding of how social and economic development can be sustainable if entrepreneurs believe in it. It was clear I had found my mentor. Michael Raimondo produced nine video clips about the remarkable yet simple innovations implemented by Anders Nyquist that gave rise to new industries. Anders shared his experiences and frustrations with me. He introduced me to the entrepreneurs who form the core network of changemakers in this part of the world. I came across an iconic green school built in the heart of the Swedish community of Timrå. I also saw the meticulous design of GreenZone5, which included an auto repair shop, a gas station, and a fast-food restaurant. They bundled water and energy and integrated technologies that even the gurus in the United States hadn't heard of, resulting in incredible levels of water, energy, and efficiency. Dozens of companies have sprung up around Anders' pioneering work, each pushing the boundaries of sustainability, health, and quality of life, far from the center of architecture and science. I concluded that it is precisely because one is on the periphery that there is greater freedom to act and think beyond the norm.
Glass and building design
The lengthy introduction was essential to disseminate the knowledge and experience necessary for opportunities to emerge. It's not simply the invention of a brilliant technology, or the funding provided by an investor; it's an active and expanding network of increasing complexity that allows us to guide societies toward sustainability. While Michael Raimondo documented nine of the innovations, and Lars Ling, a very dynamic coordinator for Central Sweden, published nine video clips on the innovations clustered around Anders Nyquist, one particular business development stood out: the clustering of glass, insulation, and landfill. Anders introduced me to Åke Mård, the mastermind behind the design of Koljern's prefabricated buildings. At first, I wondered why I was interested in prefabricated buildings, but I knew I had to trust Anders Nyquist. It quickly became apparent that Åke had developed a revolutionary concept: creating a house frame with a core of glass foam made from recycled car windshields. Although it might sound ridiculous, I visited the construction site and was impressed. When I toured a completed house, the air quality and ambient temperature were remarkable.
The glass foam is 97% air, primarily CO2, which it sequesters for about a hundred years, providing a practical way to reduce it in the atmosphere. These millions of tiny bubbles not only regulate the temperature but also prevent moisture from passing through. Furthermore, the glass only melts at 1,100°C and is non-flammable, eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, the need for fireproofing materials. When I analyze an innovation, I look for a strong start. This was a strong start. Then I learned that the raw material could be old glass. Pittsburgh Corning, the Belgian supplier located in Tessenderlo, which began production in 1965, uses windshields from broken cars. This means that the glass foam scores highly in terms of resource efficiency. Glass cannot be destroyed; it can only be transformed. This lightweight foam also possesses structural strength, not just insulating power. The series of characteristics it exhibits offers "multiple benefits and multiple cash flows," a key condition of the blue economy. When Åke Mård explained the principles of glass foam, I realized that this was yet another classic example of how an innovative product can replace something with nothing. This fundamental concept of the blue economy often elicits laughter from those who first hear me say it. But foam glass quickly proved to be my favorite case for demonstrating how one product, through its design and systemic use, can eliminate the need for multiple products. This gives sustainability a new dimension. It's not about improving resource efficiency by a factor of 4 or 10, but rather by a factor of 100 or even 1,000. What I learned in Sweden is another instance where I had to navigate between fantasy and reality. But reality presented itself to me; both science and business case analysis were sound. Our research team in the Baltic States, led by Dr. Janis Gravitis from Riga, Latvia, pointed out that Russian scientists invented foam glass in the 1930s at the Mendeleev Chemical Technological University in Moscow. The American company Pittsburgh Corning claims to have invented and industrialized it. We observed that Gomel Glass (now located in Gomel, Belarus) has been manufacturing foam glass for the local and Russian markets for 50 years, based on original work from the 1930s. Although a relic of the Soviet Union, it is far from obsolete. Georgiy Kazak (CEO) and Anatoliy Minin (President) are clearly at the helm of the company and continue to supply foam glass to the Belarusian and Russian markets.
The success of the glass wallet:
The combination of the underlying logic and the prefabricated building design of Åke Mård prompted me to ask our ZERI network in Japan to evaluate this breakthrough. Mr. Tamio Ishibashi, Senior Vice President of Daiwa House, Japan's largest home builder, constructing some 40,000 units annually, sent a team to Sweden to assess the performance, and the conclusion was positive. He was impressed by Anders Nyquist's work and invited him to Japan to demonstrate the principles of natural air circulation in their office buildings in Sendai. The confidence of our Japanese partners reassured us that my intuition was correct. Then, in 2005, a meeting was held at Pittsburgh Corning's European headquarters in Belgium. The executives received me politely, but the management at the time failed to grasp the potential economic impact they could have on a regional scale. It is therefore not surprising that leadership is shifting from a multinational corporation to a portfolio of innovative companies. Having visited the glass foam plant in Tessenderlo, Belgium, I was able to compare its technical processes with those of the young company Earth Stone—an American company founded in 1995 by Gay Dillingham and Andrew Ungerleiter in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pittsburgh Corning strives to produce with ever-greater economies of scale and to continually reduce marginal costs. Dillingham and his team, on the other hand, are dedicated to designing custom glass foam for uses I had never heard of before. The traditional core competency-based business had blinded Pittsburgh Corning, and I realized that Pittsburgh Corning and ZERI were not a perfect match, so we did not pursue it. However, Åke persisted with its design concepts, and decades of practical experience led to a patent that turned the tables on its supplier: now that Koljern (Åke's building system) was built around foam glass, the multinational began to show interest beyond the traditional supplier-customer relationship. Koljern became a key component in the design of energy-efficient homes, earning Åke Mård a well-deserved 2013 Swedish Building Innovator Award.
Meanwhile, Gay Dillingham (pictured left) built a unique patent portfolio around another version of foam glass: 95% of its raw materials were diverted from landfills. She created the supply chain from the Albuquerque landfill. The glass was ground as finely as flour for bread and gave rise to four product lines. The creation of this portfolio was driven by the desire to replace extracted raw materials with recycled glass. In accordance with the principles of the blue economy, the manufactured products have a value exceeding that of the simple bottle from which they originate. Earth Stone still operates in the market for insulation and lightweight, eco-friendly, and structural building materials, but its core business has shifted to horticulture.
Glass recycling has become a platform technology, penetrating multiple sectors. This is a prerequisite for establishing a framework where an innovative business model stimulates dozens of others to innovate. One application that has developed is foam glass as a growing medium for tomatoes and strawberries in greenhouses. Foam glass is highly porous, contains no chemicals, and aerates the soil while ensuring good water balance for the roots. This production technique allows for the customization of the growing medium to suit a wide range of plants and agricultural practices. Considering that most hydroponic growing media are made of perlite or mined hydroton, this innovative application places glass in a never-ending cycle. The glass foam can be recycled to become the growing medium for the following season. This demonstrates that a non-biodegradable product can be highly eco-friendly, provided that efforts are made to create a closed loop. The success of "growstone" prompted Gay and his team to transform the business into a separate unit. Earth Stone's creative team designed two additional product lines: cleaning and personal care products for consumers, and abrasives, aggregates, and filtration media for industry. The "QuickSand" sanding block lasts longer than sandpaper, and each block is made from a beer bottle. The pool and kitchen cleaning products are physics-based alternatives to toxic chemicals. Earth Stone's four business sectors and research experience, which began without prior experience in the field, have resulted in a highly flexible foam glass production design capable of meeting almost any customer's technical requirements. Belgium's highly standardized series production now contrasts with the highly flexible small-batch production in the United States.
Harvey Stone © Stone.
When I began organizing a series of blue economy training courses in Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA), my students in the first course in 2002, guided by Harvey Stone, had the opportunity to study Earth Stone's business model and conduct detailed assessments of current and future opportunities for foam glass based on raw materials, the industrial process, marketing, and the recovery of used materials. We analyzed the company's mathematics based on European and American experiences and arrived at some remarkable conclusions: foam glass produced
from repurposed landfill bottles breaks even with just 5.2 million bottles, and by using windshields, the break-even point is reached with roughly double the volume. When we began applying the model to wine production, we realized we had a new, systemic approach to the debate surrounding glass and plastic bottles. Bordeaux vineyards distribute 450 million bottles annually, and France consumes 3.8 billion bottles
.
Factory chains
In 2010, American consumers surpassed the French, for the first time, as the world's largest wine drinkers, with a total volume of 4 billion bottles. We calculated that, based solely on wine bottle waste, up to 750 glass recycling plants could be established in America and 700 in France. When we begin to extrapolate this emerging industry, the logic shifts away from traditional glass recycling, where a bottle is simply converted into another bottle. We know this process is not competitive and can therefore only be undertaken if companies are legally mandated and additional costs and fees are incurred. But we have identified something far superior: entrepreneurs can embrace adding value to used glass by injecting CO2, creating jobs beyond what the glass industry has been able to achieve. This generates multiple cash flows and can therefore offer products at competitive prices. A struggling recycled product (glass bottles made from glass bottles) can instead be transformed into a portfolio of recycled products that generate multiple cash flows. This is an excellent example of the blue economy. Switzerland is a unique market for glass because it is the world champion of glass collection. With a 98% recycling rate, the Swiss have the highest glass recycling rate: 320,000 tons of waste converted into raw materials. It is therefore not surprising that the Swiss produce more value from glass than anywhere else. Misapor AG is the market leader, and Daniel Engi, CEO since 1995, has a clear regional growth strategy, controlling four plants. Misapor produces 200,000 m³ of foamed glass per year in Switzerland with two production units, 240,000 m³ in Germany, and 30,000 m³ in Italy. The company licensed its foam glass production technologies to ENCO, a Swiss engineering group based in Chur, to ensure the rapid internationalization of its expertise. Jakob Federspiel, director of ENCO (Switzerland), offers turnkey production projects under the name Misapor®, and they have dozens of initiatives underway. The product portfolios and production techniques we have observed on both sides of the Atlantic have demonstrated that, rather than simply replacing a bottle, it involves substituting multiple different products with the potential to improve resource efficiency by a factor of one hundred or more. Glass can always be reconditioned and recycled. It should be considered an asset, not a cost, on balance sheets. When the market leader leaves such an opportunity untapped and an entrepreneur demonstrates the progress that could be made, it encourages greater competition. At ZERI, information is always shared as open source, and since products like foam glass are locally produced and could penetrate many niche markets, new initiatives around the world wouldn't compete with each other. Pittsburgh Corning was a latecomer to the game and established a new production facility in Klasterc, Czech Republic. Now, with the pressure mounting, as described below, the company is building a factory in China to meet the growing demand there. While Earth Stone continues to focus on the vast US market, it has also ventured into the Netherlands with its growstone product line for horticulture and greenhouses. This has encouraged others, such as tomato growers, to become proactive entrepreneurs.
Foam glass in the future:
The European Union recognized the potential of foam glass made from glass waste and funded the creation of JSC Stikloporas (www.stikloporas.lt) in Druskininkai, Lithuania. Since 2012, CEO Edgaras Krusas has hired 24 foam glass experts who ensure 24/7 production. The company has expanded into lightweight housing construction in Poland, Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic states. It competes directly with the Finnish foam glass manufacturer, Uusioaines Ltd. (www.foamit.fi), which opened its factory in 2011 with a production capacity of 150,000 m³, under the leadership of Jari Stenberg (President)
and Lassi Julin (CEO). Our current assessment of the European market is that at least 10 plants have been built or are under construction across Europe, driven by our competitive portfolio of products and services. Total investment has exceeded €100 million, and we are now generating 1,200 direct jobs. However, if we include indirect jobs related to the collection and sorting of glass at the source, an additional 3,000 jobs could be created.
While current production volume in Europe barely exceeds one million cubic meters, it is increasing at a double-digit rate, and we anticipate that by 2020, 25 plants will be operational on the continent and that the Asian market will take off. In countries like Switzerland, where glass recycling rates have reached their limit, replacing plastic containers with glass is a guaranteed growth strategy for foamed glass. The only way to increase the supply of glass is to return to glass containers from plastic ones, and now that demand for home insulation is reaching new heights, we see this reversal as the trend of the future. This signals a fundamental restructuring of the bottling industry. We view glass foam as one of the few reindustrialization initiatives driven by new resource efficiency. Glass cannot be composted or incinerated, but it can be reused with greater value. Beverage plastics have a functional lifespan measured in days, and a half-life of decades, even centuries. With this innovation, we can put the economy on the blue path of entrepreneurship.
Gunter's Fables Translation
The glass trade is depicted in fable no. 52, entitled "The Crystal Palace." It is dedicated to Åke Mård, who had already inspired the creation of this cluster in 2004 with his Koljern technique.
Documentation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvFA7WwxFw
vimeo.com/album/2916248. www.earthstoneinternational.com/our-company/our-technology
www.misapor.ch/files/kurzportrait-misapor.pdf
