Land+Living: Cool pavement

Green, Materials — October 12, 2005 Posted by James

Water-retentive paving blocks

It looks like your run-of-the-mill paving block, the same kind you can pick up at your local home improvement store. But these "Eco-Pavers" manufactured by Matsuo Corp. of Ibaraki, Japan can actually retain water and, used en-mass, greatly reduce the heat island effect of large areas of paving.

Made of recycled construction materials, Eco-Pavers are specially cast to wick up water through capillary action. The pavers actually mimic plant transpiration to provide natural cooling; surface temperatures of the blocks can be lower than the air temperature by 2° - 3° C (3.5° - 5.5° F) and lower than the surface temperature of ordinary blocks by 10° C (18° F) or more.

Link: Matsuo Corp (Japanese)
Article: Daily Yomiuri
Via: Treehugger - Matsuo Corp's "Eco-Paver", Water Retentive Blocks

Matsuo Corp. manufactures a wide range of paving products including permeable pavers, open-cell pavers, etc.

According to Hitoshi Nishiwake, Matsuo Corporation's President: "We've worked with used and recycled materials for a long time. I personally inherited the spirit of "mottainai" [literally: "It's a shame to waste things."] from my ancestors. As global warming progresses, we'll take a natural approach to conserve the global environment and continue contributing to it company-wide in the future."

3 comments

Comments (3)

josh — April 11, 2006
check your math

not that important, but it seems you converted 2-3 degrees and 10 degrees as readings on a Celsius thermometer, rather than as individual measurement units. the Farenheit numbers given should be 3.5-5.5 and 18, respectively. and yes, i am an engineer : )

James — April 11, 2006
Thanks, Josh

Clearly I am not an engineer!

Eugenie — October 30, 2008
open cell paver manufacturer in US?

At the DIA Center in Beacon, NY, their parking lot is laid with large open cell pavers. I'd like to use these in our driveway and cannot find them in Maryland. Anyone know U.S. manufacturer's name? Checking with Tree Hugger next. Thanks for any Mid Atlantic info!