Make Buildings Out of Shipping Containers

Building with repurposed, durable shipping containers known as SG Blocks is good for both the environment and our pocketbooks.

The good intentions of “going green” are often thwarted by the high price tag that can accompany social consciousness in the building market. Without a clear understanding or definition, sustainable building can feel daunting and too cost prohibitive to embrace. There is, however, a tried and true alternative that is rising in prominence: repurposed shipping containers known as SG Blocks.

At the essence of SG Blocks is a structural building system that is ready to be clad in any type of façade, with interiors that can reach any level of finish and specification. Shipping containers are suitable across the spectrum of real estate asset classes, and are comprised of heavy gauge steel making them earthquake, hurricane, tornado, water, mold, and termite resistant. They can be stacked up to nine levels high without additional reinforcement. Such containers are consistently less expensive and greener than regular structural steel, and can typically shave up to 40 to 50 per cent off the construction period, thus providing a significant relief in soft costs and loan interest for developers, contractors, and customers.

Building with containers guarantees both superior structural integrity and an extensive wealth of options, including flexible layouts and the ability to expand or contract according to the user’s needs. This is particularly useful in urban settings, where scalability can translate into significant savings in time and cost. SG Blocks is currently advancing technology that will allow for a planned densification on multi-story container based projects.

For the true green enthusiast, building with containers is the clear choice for the environment. As the market leader in container based building, SG Blocks has the lowest embodied energy utilization of any structural building product on the market today. Shipping containers typically have a useful life of 10-15 years in the industry, and the cost of reclaiming the raw steel from a used container is economically unfeasible. Through a process we call Value-Cycling, the conversion of a container into an SG Block takes one-twentieth the amount of energy required to reprocess a container of comparable weight made of steel. Increasing the lifespan of a container for nearly 100 years, the SG Blocks System saves a significant amount of lumber and steel, as well as in energy expenditures (all of which contribute to LEED certification).

We encourage people to do some research before they begin building. We are confident that they will discover that container-based construction is an innovative way to build structurally superior buildings that are both green and economically desirable.