GreenBuild: Agriboard Structural Insulated Panels
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 11.24.08
It doesn't look like much, and my photography doesn't help, but for me, this simple product was perhaps the best thing I saw at Greenbuild. But then, I am biased; I like dumb products that just sit there and do their job while reducing our carbon footprints and saving fossil fuels. These are the kinds of innovations that scale, that are accessible and affordable.
Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are usually known as a sandwich of OSB (oriented strand board) and styrofoam, all glued together to make a structural panel. While they make a very well-insulated, tight wall and are fast, I have worried about their longevity and would have preferred to use a less petroleum-intensive insulation than styrofoam.
Enter Agriboard. It uses wheat and rice straw that is normally burned or ploughed under, and builds it into a panel that delivers R-25, not as good as a styrofoam SIP but pretty good and in a form that gives you a tight envelope.
Putting the straw into a panel instead of letting it rot and give up its CO2 sequesters the carbon for the life of the panel, effectively making it carbon negative., sinking more carbon than is actually produced by manufacturing the product. When the straw is compressed and heated, the natural lignin acts as a binder.
The compressed straw is then glued into a box made from formaldehyde-free OSB boards with a substantial header made of Timberstrand, so the whole thing acts as a box beam.
Best of show? With all that wonderful high-tech stuff beckoning? Perhaps it is a bit of an over-statement, but here is a product that is effective, fast, is made in Kansas out of an agricultural waste product and can even claim to be carbon negative. Add the carbon savings that come from the speed of erection and the air-tightness of SIP building and it is even more impressive.
If we are going to solve our carbon and fossil fuel problems, we need to find solutions that are low-tech, affordable and local. Agriboard doesn't look like much, but it represents the best kind of ingenuity and for me, the model of the kind of thinking we need.
More information at Agriboard
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"...instead of letting it rot..." Oh really? You mean like composting? Regenerating the nutrients in the soil that grew the stalk in the first place? Agreed, if that's not being done NOW, maybe it should be.
Not that this is a bad product, but I call greenwashing on that factoid.
For future reference: OSB= oriented strand board. The "board" is inherent as represented by the "B." Kinda makes me want to find an ATM machine.
LA:Thanks, I have notified the Department of Redundancy Department to fix it.
I'm more compost attuned than most people (my job puts me in contact with various compost producers and our end product relies on compost for it's efficacies), but I'd say the point here was missed; you are removing this carbon from the atmospheric cycle, in effect "mineralizing" it. That is even better than the immobilization we get from putting it back into the bacteria and fungi that are "rotting" things, at least from a sequestration side of things (it does NOT address where the fields that the straw came from are going to regain their humic content and nitrogen lost to growing it in the first place, but "rotting" does...).
HG
If you think this is cool, check out: www.ecovativedesign.com
They're developing similar structural insulating panels (SIPS) using agricultural wastes, bonded together by mycellium (fungi)!
It's a very low energy manufacturing process, the panels weigh a lot less, and it essentially sequesters carbon in the walls of your home.
The single most important reason why SIP hasn't taken off comes down to cost.
While SIPs have a number of advantages over ordinary bricks and mortar and frame built houses they fall down on two counts.
1) The total build cost does not bring significant savings over conventional methods, by significant I mean not even 10% cheaper [and that's using a breakdown by a pro SIPs 'green' construction company].
2) While they might be as strong or even stronger than some conventional builds they don't look it, neither do they look like they will past the tests of time. I'm well aware that there are examples that have stood up to both time and inclement weather, but perception is everything.
What I consider to be the greatest benefit of SIPs, its energy saving potential, is something that needs to be driven by the government. When one considers the thoughtless wastefulness of most people and the limited yearly savings its difficult to sell to a sceptical public.
Also while SIPs is 'small scale' the level of craftsmanship is pretty high but once it takes off I have no doubt that it will drop down to the level seen on most new builds and potentially many of the energy savings would be compromised by such a drop in standards.
Perhaps if you are really concerned about carbon footprint and the sequestration of 'excess global CO2' You should go the straw bale route ... II can guarantee that it requires a lot less energy to make a straw bale ... I would also guess that the straw bale house would also be score better on noise transmission.