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The Beauty of Vinyl Siding Transcends Great Design – with Industry-Leading Sustainability

By Don Browne

Did you know that vinyl siding comes in a vast array of colors and styles to help you add more excitement to your projects? And no matter what color and style you choose, vinyl and other polymeric siding shine GREENER than all other exteriors.

That’s right. Vinyl siding is one of the most sustainable exterior products on the market today, and the industry is quite conceivably one of the most committed to continuously improving its carbon footprint.

Here are the facts:

  • VSI member manufacturers invented and perfected the co-extrusion process, which is the main reason why there is less than 1% manufacturing waste.
  • Vinyl siding is made from raw materials (salt and natural gas) and uses the least amount of water during manufacturing, just two of the several reasons why vinyl siding has one of the lowest impacts on global warming for most other claddings, including fiber cement and brick.
  • In 2021, VSI launched a pilot post-consumer vinyl siding recycling program in Northeast Ohio that is evolving to serve as a model for other areas of North America. Vinyl is a thermoplastic that can be ground up, re-melted and formed into a variety of high-quality new products including new siding.

A local exterior contractor once told me, “I have a lot of customers that are ‘armchair environmentalists’ who insist on wooden claddings for their homes. But then they call me 5-10 years later to tell me it needs to be replaced.”

Vinyl siding, insulated vinyl siding and polypropylene siding, on the other hand, have a shelf life of 50+ years. The products are lightweight, low maintenance, resource-efficient and can withstand extreme weather in many climates.

All three cladding types are also some of the best products in the exterior industry for insulating the home with the greatest fuel efficiencies. And their emulated styles can give a home the desired wood look with a more environmentally friendly outcome.

Lastly, specifying vinyl siding can help you meet the latest building codes seamlessly, as well as, in the case of insulated vinyl siding, qualify your project for points with most green building programs and possible funding and/or rebates under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.

To learn more about the sustainable advantages of vinyl siding, check out our EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) for vinyl siding, polypropylene siding and insulated vinyl siding.