Length - 04:33 Award-winning home and kitchen designer, Fu-Tung Cheng discusses the sustainability of concrete countertops and shows us the first countertop he built over 25 years ago that is in the house he still lives in today. When Cheng first conceived of the idea of this house he had much more time than money and he was looking for materials that were used. So he gathered glass from the Berkeley, Calif. dump, wood from a navy shipyard, and wood floors from a junior high gymnasium that was being torn down. With all these used materials he didn't want a countertop that was harmful to the environment. So how does sustainability and green building materials relate to concrete countertops? Cheng believes good design, timeless design, is green. Good design means the piece is appreciated over a long period of time. The reason is that the projects are not constantly torn down and replaced. This wastes tons of materials. The material itself is also green because local materials are being harvested like aggregates, and sands, and fines. Then regionally made cement is also being used. The carbon footprint of all the materials is local. This can be compared to the local food movement where food is bought from local farmers. The carbon footprint of concrete can be compared to that of granite which is quarried in Italy, hauled to China to be polished, then shipped to the United states, and finally trucked to a person's residence. The materials in concrete are all harvested within a 100 mile radius of a person's home. Making concrete countertops locally is a sustainable and green enterprise. Find a Concrete Contractor 23 Services in 200 Metros -- U.S. and Canada © 2008 ConcreteNetwork.com None of this site may be reproduced without written permission |