GreenDigs Blog

Kirei, most commonly known for their highly recognizable sorghum board, has expanded their line to include other green materials.  A recent visit to the manufacturer’s website brought a discovery of bamboo, wheatboard, and coconut shell green materials; all rapidly renewable products (grown, harvested and replenished within 10 years or less) which can help contribute towards LEED points.

Kirei’s bamboo line features the fairly commonly edge grain, horizontal, and strand grain versions.  Also included is a proprietary “chocolate” bamboo, which is darker in tone than a typical caramel or carbonized version. The wheatboard is marketed towards as a green MDF substitute, as it is not overly stable as a countertop surface or cabinetry front.  Is it suitable, however, as paneling or surface which does not receive high usage. Lastly, the Coco product, which is made from coconut shells, is tile form available in a woven or organic pattern.  The sizes are 12″ x 12″ tile or panel size of 48″ x 48″, which could be used in multiple ways to create patterns and forms.  Check it out.

This past month, Armstrong introduced a new acoustical ceiling tile  – Tierra – which is composed of 45% of rapidly renewable jute fiber and has Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Silver Certification.  (Cradle to Cradle measures how environmentally sound or “green” product is by levels of certification – platinum, gold, silver, or basic.)

Armstrong markets Tierra as the “greenest” ceiling tile system available in the marketplace, and the visual appearance of the tile is virtually identical to a fine textured acoustical ceiling tile.  The performance acoustics aren’t bad either – it has a NRC of .85 and LR of .88.  The only downside is that because of the jute composition (i.e. soft fibers that cannot form edge profiles), it only has square edge profiles available in 2′x2′ or 2′x4′ sizes. No information on cost yet, but it would be an easy way to help target LEED Materials & Resources credit 6 for rapidly renewable products. Check it out on their Website.