by kevin, on April 5th, 2010
On July 27, 1976 members of the American Legion gathered at the Bellevue Strattford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA to celebrate the American Bicentennial. Within two days, veterans were falling ill with an unidentified ailment with symptoms similar to pneumonia. By the end of the event, more than 220 attendees had been treated and 34 eventually died. A six month investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally uncovered the culprit – a bacteria breeding in a hotel cooling tower.
I grew up in New Jersey less than 60 miles from Philadelphia. I vividly recall my excitement for the 1976 American Freedom Train and the Bicentennial summer, along with my fear over what would later be named Legionnaires Disease. There was great debate at my school about whether a scheduled field trip to a Philadelphia museum would be canceled. My mother tried to reassure me that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but I knew something was wrong. This incident also had a profound effect on Carol Baumgartel, founder of American Clay. During a recent interview conducted in the LEED Platinum certified home of a good friend she told me how it forever altered her thinking and initiated a heightened sensitivity to the presence of toxic substances commonly found in the average indoor environment.
In 1999, Carol’s oldest son Croft developed skin reactions, headaches, and respiratory conditions from prolonged exposure to caustic chemicals he used with his fine interior finishing business. Around the same time, a colleague introduced him to a European clay plaster product that was free of the potential toxins affecting his health. Although it was an improvement, he thought he could make it better. He enlisted Carol, an interior designer with a fine arts degree in ceramics, to research the product and determine its composition. With her understanding of clays and aggregates and his engineering background they were able to reverse engineer a comparable product.
We should not underestimate the potency of mixing maternal instinct and entrepreneurial spirit. In my interviews with product manufacturers, I’m often told how underlying considerations for future generations influence business decisions. When I raise this issue with Carol it brings her to tears. It’s easy to see how deep her passion runs for merging her business strengths with efforts that contribute positively. Regard for others, even people you don’t know or will never meet, is an essential ingredient of sustainability.
A year later, Carol used a new house under construction in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the company is located, to test their new formulation. In the beginning, everyone but Carol was thinking small. But she knew right from the start the product had wide commercial potential. By 2002, a refined version was ready for introduction to the building materials market. Even though everyone thought she was crazy, Carol knew how important it would be to legally protect what she and Croft had developed. “We went to see this patent attorney,” Carol tells me with full theatrical reenactment. “She’s this tiny little lady, and she said ‘Oh, I think we can get this patented, and would you put this in my house please?’ And I thought, wow there it is.” Everyone who saw the product was convinced it was something special.
Natural plasters have existed for thousands of years, and it was this issue that posed a problem with the patent office. Carol and Croft had to demonstrate that their product was significantly different than previous ones, something unique, and worth legal protection. The process took seven years to complete, but they were eventually awarded the first patent for a natural building material since 1932.
American Clay manufactures a number of beautiful, natural, interior wall finishes composed of 70% recycled and reclaimed sands, aggregates, and shells. We’ve posted about their products in the past, so I won’t go into detail about them here. But Carol pointed out a number of interesting facts that make her products different from other wall finishes. “Clay is a phase change material,” she tells me, “the molecular structure of the clay particles actually interacts with vapor within the interior environment.” That means the finish is not inert, it’s still alive. It’s been shown in a year-long study that their products help to moderate the temperature and moisture content of indoor air. In warmer weather, spaces will stay cooler, and in cooler weather, spaces will stay warmer. Other typical wall coatings, such as paint, do not have this property. In fact, most paints off-gas harmful volatile organic compounds as they dry. There’s nothing toxic or harmful in any American Clay products.
Eight years have passed since the company founding and growth continues steadily even while other sectors of the building industry have experienced marked declines. Perhaps it shows that Carol and Croft are on to something. By the way, Croft no longer suffers any ailments resulting from the materials he works with.
I would like to extend special thanks to our good friend Joseph Treves who volunteered his beautiful home as our interview location, and Julie DuBrow for helping to facilitate and schedule the interview. It could not have happened without you. But I’m especially grateful to Carol for her time, her passion, and her dedication.
Click on the left icon below for a downloadable video version of the interview, and click on the right icon below for a text only download version of this post:
