A message from Duane Heil, President of Vitruvian:
If you consider styrene (oil) as a building product and not as a fuel, then the metrics of its' production and consumption change radically.
This is not to say that perhaps there is a way to transform the properties of renewable resources so that they may have the stability, workability, and availability of oil. I have been actively involved in the building trades for the past 39 years and to date haven't found anything that has the benefits of EPS, but I would welcome the technology that does so.
I would think that there is enough local production of oil in any part of the world to supply oil, (natural gas can be used too) to supply local demand for plastics...NOT FUEL. ie...lets build with it, not burn it.
We have performed calculations on net carbon footprint of our building system for the construction of and the operation of our buildings. We are by far the lowest.
The main reason for our efficiencies is our patented software application that optimizes output for any custom structure to net an overall waste product of less than 1%. We also manufacture close to the building site to minimize the travel impact."