by Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
Green construction does not only introduce ways of constructing buildings in an ecologically responsible manner, but it also opens a new market for eco-friendly construction supplies.
These are available in hardware stores which also adhere to green construction, like the Wilcon along McArthur highway in Davao City, the only branch in Mindanao. With the slogan, “Wilcon goes green”, Wilcon offers a variety of bathroom sanitary equipment materials, paint and surface coatings, plumbing supplies, tiles and lights that are designed to save water and power, and protect the environment.
For instance, in waterless male urinals, the ones produced by Kohler, water is no longer needed to disinfect and remove foul odor. Instead, according to the store branch manager Gerard Gauran, a mere bottle cap-full of chemical by Mckenic products of Octacrom is applied to the urinal just once a week.
It definitely saves on water! Available faucets also help save water because they do not only have sensors but also a strainer to control the pressure as water is released.
Moreover, energy-saving lights (ESL) like Akari, Philips, Firefly and GE consume energy as little as less than .5 watts, much lesser than the minimum 20 watts required in lighting a fluorescent lamp. This kind of light has a device inside which converts alternating current, as it is plugged in 220 volts, into direct current.
What about saving trees? Cement, tiles and metals have become alternatives for wooden materials, especially for floors, walls and ceilings.
Some bricks are artificial, not purely made from mountain rocks, but are cement-based and colored like real stones. Gauran said wooden supplies are now limited to moldings and cornices.
Less use of wood is possible in construction, ac-cording to Engineer Victoriano M. Yee Jr., a construction firm owner since 1995. Practicing green construction, Eugenia Construction has built/supervised structures that still exist not only in the city but in other places of Mindanao.
Some of these are the JLF Parkway building along Quirino Street corner Pichon Street; the Mintrade Building, at Sales Street corner Monterverde Street, where the office of the Department of Trade and Industry is located; the Davao Central High School, formerly known as Chinese school, on J.P. Laurel Avenue; the Assumption College of Davao also along Cabaguio Avenue; and the Davao Medical School Foundation on Bacaca road.
In addition, aside from building most of the houses in subdivisions developed by Kisan Lu Land Inc., Eugenia Construction has built some 100 classrooms in different areas in Mindanao donated by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce.
Having renovated the now Viktoriano’s Place on Ilustre Street, Yee prefers green construction because of its advantages, not only environment-wise but also cost-wise. The suppliers of green building materials of Eugenia Construction include Dimdi Builders Center Inc., Davao General Hardware Co. Inc., Golden Hardware, Goldstar Hardware, and Diamond Hardware.
For the past 15 years in the construction industry, Yee has used eco-friendly materials and practiced ways that minimize energy and water utilization. He said that using Vasquez prefabricated building materials reduces the use of electricity during construction. It is because instead of welding pieces of metals for walling, one may simply install prefabricated wall by boring only a few holes. He also mentioned that using water from drainage canals for cement-mixing also helps in reducing construction costs and in saving potable water.
But, have consumers been a bit conscious about the impact of the building materials to the environment when they purchased them? As Gauran has noticed, consumers are not yet “green conscious”. He said Davao clients, whether in commercial or residential construction, prefer those that are readily available in the store. That is why, he said, the responsibility is now in the hands of store owners or suppliers to make available green construction materials in the market.
