Sustainable Building Envelope
Sustainability concepts mean different things to different people. At FEI, our definition of sustainability is continuously changing. However, our core concept of sustainability for the building envelope is simple: design and install appropriate components and details that will perform for the duration of the expected building life-cycle while minimizing environmental impact. Additionally, we believe that details should always be designed with maintenance and inevitable replacement in mind, as rehabilitation will some day be necessary.
Our concept is flexible and produces different positive outcomes for each building encountered. In our opinion, minimizing environmental impact does not always dictate the use of recycled or “green" materials. Why? Our experience is that many of these "green" systems have reduced life-cycle expectancy. Therefore, it is often more appropriate to specify less "green" materials because environmental impact is reduced with longer material life-cycle expectancy.
For example, a 40 year building can have a roofing replacement once every ten-years with low-quality details and materials, once every 20 years with good details and materials, or never need replacement with excellent details and excellent materials. Which is more environmentally friendly?
We also support Historic Preservation projects,
Vegetative Green Roofing Systems
and Plaza Decks and Healing Gardens.