Icynene Insulation and a Green Cheese Factory

Photo Credit: Icynene

Ontario, Canada-based Icynene has developed an expanding,  spray foam insulation and air barrier product derived from castor oil.  The product exceeds ASTM standards for bio-based materials, is 100% water-blown and insulates and seals in one step.

For those that don’t know, as I didn’t until I conducted some research, the castor plant is an incredibly sustainable  and non-toxic crop.  Castor beans don’t require irrigation (in normal conditions), do not need to be treated with pesticides or fungicides and yield more than twice the oil of soybeans by weight.  In addition to the oil’s other modern usage in beauty products, it has been used as an ingested folk remedy for at least 4,000 years.  Yes, 4,000 years - castor beans found in Egyptian tombs have been carbon dated.

An example of the Icynene product in action is the LEED Platinum Fifth Town Artisan Cheese factory (seen above) in Prince Edward County, Ontario.  Given the factory’s unique interior environmental conditions required to cultivate cheese, it was critically important to create a high R-value building envelope that maintains conditions in all seasons and prevents condensation and mold growth.   The Icynene product was additionally used in the interior walls to create a thermal and vapor barrier between the administrative/retail areas and the production areas.

Other features of owner, chef, and eco-entrepreneur Petra Cooper’s factory are a subterranean, earth-cooled cheese cave, a geothermal heating system and solar PV.  They targeted, but I couldn’t confirm, 13 out of 13 for SS (the 20 acre site is a natural habitat for deer, beaver and native bird) and achieved a large number of MR points with local materials, recycled content and landfill diversion.

And, it’s a pretty good looking cheese factory, right?

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