Submitted by Northwest EcoBuilding Guild
Tucked behind a warehouse, a stone’s throw from Eld Inlet, a small business is importing cork from Portugal for an unusual purpose. Not for stoppers for wine bottles, or even cork flooring – which has become a popular “green” alternative to wood laminate floors. The company is The Small Planet Workshop, and their newest product is cork insulation from Portugal.
The Company’s President, Albert Rooks will be talking about the stuff next Thursday October 18, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the EcoHouse@Fertile Ground, as part of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild’s monthly Membership meeting in downtown Olympia. Click here to RSVP.
Surprisingly, cork for insulation isn’t a new idea. Cork tree bark has been harvested for many uses since the Roman Empire, and it’s been the bedrock foundation of Portugal’s economy for thousands of years.
The thing is, Rooks is the only company in the US distributing cork insulation and several other innovative green building products from Europe. So they’re shipping out orders to top-tier builders all over the US and business is growing fast.
Here’s a case where what’s good for the EuroZone is good for our local economy as well.
For example… Rooks visited Europe several times in the last decade, where he forged a partnership with SIGA, a Swiss manufacturer of sealing tapes and membranes used widely there for airtight, wind resistant wall construction. He helped the company get started in the US market and they now have 3 business development specialists here teaching our industry high-quality air sealing techniques.
The Small Planet Workshop and sister company West Coast Associates, are part of a fast-growing trend in green high-performance building: A “systems approach” to home building called Passive House design. “Passivhaus” has been all the rage in Germany for more than 20 years: Houses that are super-insulated and so extremely airtight that it takes the equivalent of a hair dryer to keep them warm in winter. How would you like to save 60-70% off your heating bills? It’s enough savings to pay for your entire house in a few decades.
Saving energy isn’t the only thing that’s green about Passive House and other high-performance building methods. Passive houses are built to last 150 years or more. Now that’s what you call sustainable.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that The Small Planet Workshop’s cork insulation is 100% non-toxic. But so are SIGA’s high-tech line of tapes and membranes, expanding foam products and more. They contain none of the VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) found in many traditional building materials. VOCs pollute indoor air and can turn a small house fire into a cloud of deadly poison fumes.
With thickly insulated airtight walls, moisture, mold and indoor air pollution also can cause “sick building syndrome” and combustion safety issues if not properly ventilated. The best-trained builders have it down to a science using low-toxic materials and breathable wall assemblies that allow vapor to come and go. Energy recovery ventilators get fresh air in without losing heat to the outside.
Rooks is passionate about this: “Educating builders through the groups like the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild and Passive House Northwest, helps me live my company’s commitment to creating a sustainable world. That means efficient buildings that use less energy, and use less environmentally damaging materials.”
Rooks has found an audience of architects and builders eager to learn about his materials and the building science behind them. “We live in an era when energy efficiency awareness has hit the top levels of our bldg industry, with new code requirements for air sealing and more insulation. People are trying to learn how to do that effectively.”
Education has been Small Planet Workshop’s way into the market, a method of connecting to builders in the industry. Throughout the year, Rooks helps organize field tours, hands-on trainings, highly technical conferences and seminars, as well as general public presentations like the one on Thursday night.
“In turn, I rely on other Guild members to teach me about the areas that I don’t know, but are still important such as water conservation, waste management, solar power and strawbale construction.”
The Northwest EcoBuilding Guild meets the third Thursday of each month, including this Thursday, October 18. Rooks will be presenting “Cork: Tree to Insulation” from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, at the EcoHouse@Fertile Ground, downtown Olympia. Visit the Guild website for more information or to RSVP.
