Material Health
Pursuing material health in the building industry involves avoiding or eliminating toxic chemicals from building products. Toxic chemicals are those that can bring harm to factory workers, installers, or building occupants. There are tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals used in our building products, and they can increase the risk of everything from asthma to obesity to cancer.
Materials containing these toxic chemicals include carpet, insulation, wet-applied products like adhesives and sealants, and many others. It’s possible to improve material health through better design decisions and product selections.
Material Health
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
-
Take Control of Your Materials: Four Empowering Lessons from Teams That Beat the Red List
Feature Article
Need to streamline your product vetting process? These LBC project teams have it down to a science, and anyone can apply their methods.
-
Finding Furniture Without Toxic Flame Retardants
Feature Article
Flame retardants in upholstered furniture are easier to avoid under new rules, but they’re not gone. Here’s how to navigate the changing landscape.
-
What Makes the Building Envelope Green? BuildingGreen’s Guide to Thermal & Moisture Protection Products
Feature Article
From insulation to flashing tape to cladding, we look at the attributes of the greenest building envelope products.
-
A Guide to Selecting Sustainable Textiles
Feature Article
Textiles’ good looks hide an ugly environmental legacy, but there are five straightforward ways to make responsible design choices.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
-
PlybooPure is Formaldehyde Free
Product Review
The PlybooPure line of bamboo flooring and panel products from Smith & Fong uses a polyisocyanurate binder, making it urea-formaldehyde-free.
-
Smaller Copper Particles, Smaller Environmental Impact for Treated Wood
Product Review
With its MicroPro treated wood, Osmose is one of several companies making innovations in copper preservative techniques. MicroPro's use of tiny copper particles offers environmental benefits when compared with conventional copper treatment.
-
Composite Panel Industry Adapts to Pending CARB Regulation
Product Review
California will adopt stringent new standards for emissions from composite wood products in 2009, pushing the panel industry to convert to more environmentally friendly binders.
-
Whey-Based Floor and Furniture Finishes
Product Review
PolyWhey floor and furniture finish from Vermont Natural Coatings uses whey protein, a byproduct of the cheese industry, to create a durable product with low levels of volatile organic compounds.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
-
Dow Styrofoam Cradle to Cradle Certified, Despite Chemistry
News Analysis
Dow Chemical's Styrofoam extruded polystyrene has been awarded Cradle-to-Cradle Silver certification by MBDC, despite some questionable environmental characteristics.
-
Industry Agrees to Phase Out DecaBDE Flame Retardant
News Analysis
Through an agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and three chemical manufacturers, the brominated flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) will be phased out by the end of 2013.
-
Master Painters Institute's New "Extreme Green" Standard
News Analysis
MPI has released a new standard with tight restrictions on volatile organic compounds.
-
EPA Proposes Disposal Rules for Coal Ash
News Analysis
EPA has proposed two approaches to regulating coal ash not used in concrete or other materials.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
Just For Fun
Something weird happens every April at BuildingGreen...
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
