I recently enjoyed the film Bladerunner 2049, where in an early scene, one replicant (synthetic human), smashes another through a wall apparently made of wallboard. A bit later on, the surviving replicant takes off in a flying car. While some things change, some things stay the same.
We at Global Gypsum have our eyes on a number of different industries, primarily in the building materials sector. We get to see all the latest innovations in wallboard, of course, but also those in the insulation industry, and we are abreast of cement and concrete technology and construction techniques. We are ‘materials agnostic,’ since some materials can substitute for each other quite well (for example different types of insulation provide the same level of performance), whereas it seems that at other times one material offers clear advantages over another in a specific application (for example the use of slag-based concrete as gravity dam foundations, due to the low heat of hydration of the cement).
We also get to see some incipient trends, and how they eventually transpire. For example, we saw how USG kick-started the rush towards lighter boards in 2010 with the introduction of its Sheetrock® UltraLight panels. This sent board weights in the North American wallboard industry tumbling and has caused ripples to progressively spread, so that lightweight boards are now available from a variety of manufacturers worldwide. However, just as a wave slaps against a sea-wall, it causes a reflection: Now some manufacturers are offering ‘classic’ versions of their wallboard products (like the old ‘full-fat’ Classic Coke, with its seven spoonfuls of sugar in each can1), which offer higher acoustic attenuation and other benefits.
So, what other trends are coming down the line, and what can we see for the future of building materials? Well, a quick glance at my favourite graph, below, may give you an indication of two major trends: that building materials will have less embodied energy (they will be more energy-efficient to produce) and that they will also have less embodied CO2. Despite the fact that many climate modelling programmes have now been acknowledged to ‘run hot’ and to over-estimate the degree of future global warming (probably due to an over-sensitivity of the models to the global warming potential of CO2), there is no doubt that CO2 is firmly in society’s sights as the main culprit of global warming. We have seen some consumers shying-away from materials with high embodied CO2 (for example requesting the use of lower-clinker cement for concrete foundations) and this is a trend we expect to continue.
When the cost of energy is high, those building products that can reduce energy consumption can gain a premium in the market. Concrete justly claims to have a high heat capacity and can provide thermal stability to buildings, while insulation can of course slow the transmission of heat from one area to another. Phase change materials (such as wax globules) incorporated into wallboard can emulate these effects, but we would like to see wallboard doing a lot more.
Wallboard offers a cheap, lightweight, perfectly flat, fire-resistant wall (and ceiling) surface that can be installed with relatively low skill and at high speed. We’d like to see it add insulating properties, improved acoustic attenuation, active moisture management and even greater control and improvement of indoor air quality, so that another category does not come along and ‘eat its lunch.’ Wallboard construction should be much more robust, especially if we are to see greater numbers of more powerful storms.
I wonder if we might ever see a modified tilt-up or prefabrication approach to building construction, where a low-or-no clinker/high gypsum-content water-resistant, recycled and recyclable, ‘concrete’ (or ultra-modified ‘gypsum board’) with added insulation and phase change materials offers all-round performance at low cost. Since they can already make glow-in-the-dark and translucent concrete, this is actually not such a leap. Gypsum wallboard 2049 here we come!
1 http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/faq/how-much-sugar-is-in-coca-cola
