Forbes Magazine Interviews Matt O’Malia
Forbes Magazine Interviews Matt O’Malia
Forbes magazine has published an extensive interview with Matt O’Malia, in which the OPAL founder and executive partner explains how his work at the intersection of building performance and the architectural experience led to his co-founding, with Dr. Joshua Henry, the wood fiber insulation manufacturing company GO Lab.
Speaking with Forbes contributor and housing industry author Sheri Koones, Matt describes recognizing years ago the contradiction inherent in reducing buildings’ carbon emissions by insulating them with materials that were themselves derived from fossil fuels.
“We were reducing operational energy, but canceling that out by using insulations that were high in embodied carbon,” Matt says. A new building might have to work off as much as 10 years of carbon debt before the benefits of its operational energy efficiency could deliver a net reduction in CO2 emissions.
GO Lab’s Timber HP wood fiber insulation resolves the contradiction. Because wood sequesters carbon removed from the atmosphere by living trees, wood fiber insulation arrives at the jobsite with a carbon surplus, yielding climate benefits from day one. We at OPAL and GO Lab are enormously excited about the potential of this technology, which will hit to market in 2022, and we appreciate Forbes helping us get the word out.
