EARTHANE is green. As a product, EARTHANE is about as environmentally  green as a foam insulation can get. It is water that makes this crucial difference. In place of chemical blowing agents like Freon and other highly reactive materials, EARTHANE uses water to make it turn from a liquid to a foam.

EARTHANE is the only 100% water blown, closed cell urethane spray foam on the market. All other spray foams use some form of chemical agent to make the foam expand. For many years the industry has used chlorofluorocarbons (Freon—see additional information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freon) to cause the expansion of urethane foam. In recent years government regulations have caused the industry to shift to less harmful blowing agents, such as HCFCs and recently other chemical blowing agents. EARTHANE uses water and because of that it is unique among sprayed urethane foams.

The resin component is sugar based and is a solid step in the direction of plastics made from renewable resources. There are no solvents, no “VOC’s” (volatile organic compounds), and no “off gassing”.  

Yes, the “A” component is oil based and so is that of EVERY OTHER spray foam on the market. A few foam insulations are touting their use of soy based polyols as if they are using less petroleum and switching to soybeans instead. However, the “A” component in a soy based product is still derived from oil. Someday we may have “A” components derived from other sources, but not just yet. Urethane plastics in general will eventually become even more biologically based, though, because most of the components can be derived from a plant or waste source. So, once the market demands it or the prices support it, the market will shift and foams will get greener.

On the other hand, with many millions of pounds of foam sprayed over the past 36 years, our work saves and has saved millions of gallons of oil. A single project of ours, a public high school, saved $150,000 per year in fuel oil. And this is in terms of 1978 money—without taking inflation into account! And it is still saving that much oil every year. With thousands of projects over the years I am sure we save our customers millions every year. One thing to remember is that urethane foam lasts. We have many applications in continuous service over 30 years running.

The greenest part of EARTHANE is its ability to save huge amounts of energy—whether oil, gas, or electricity—and to achieve that effect with water as a blowing agent, rather than an ozone depleting chemical.