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.
-
The Living Building Challenge: Can It Really Change the World?
Feature Article
The Living Building Challenge, with its stringent, all-or-nothing requirements, is out to change the way we build. But is it actually achievable?
-
Making Air Barriers that Work: Why and How to Tighten Up Buildings
Feature Article
Incorporating a continuous air barrier into a building's design and construction can save energy and improve the indoor environment, among other benefits. The right materials and assemblies can help accomplish that goal, but careful attention during design and close oversight during construction are essential.
-
Antimicrobial Chemicals in Buildings: Hygiene or Harm?
Feature Article
Carpets, door handles, and a myriad of other building products now contain pesticides targeting fungi and bacteria, offering potential benefit to the indoor environment, but also raising health concerns. This article asks whether antimicrobial products live up to their marketing claims and whether relying on them is a sound path to a hygienic environment.
-
Making Carpet Environmentally Friendly
Feature Article
Carpets are the most popular floorcovering in the U.S., but they have also been associated with environmental problems including indoor air emissions and intensive resource use. However, manufacturers have worked to curb their environmental footprints by recycling carpet, examining their life-cycle impacts, and pursuing broad-based certification.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
-
Radon Risks and Prevention
Primer
Radon, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., can get into our homes and bodies without us knowing it-and its presence doesn't depend on geology or locale.
-
PBT Chemicals-Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic
Primer
You've heard of persistent toxic chemicals, and bioaccumulation, but what do these things really mean, and what do they do?
-
Chromium-6: Health and Life-Cycle Hazards
Primer
Chrome-plated and stainless-steel products may not expose us directly to the hazards of hexavalent chromium, but their life cycle releases it into the environment.
-
The Precautionary Principle
Primer
The precautionary principle employs "guilty until proven innocent" methodology, and suggests that we should avoid using questionable chemicals and materials until we know they're safe.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
-
Three Ways to Find Sustainable Textiles, and Seven of the Best Brands
Product Review
A complex supply chain makes finding sustainable textiles for furnishings, draperies, panel fabrics, and other applications a challenge, but there are shortcuts.
-
Win the Turf Wars with Rubber-Free Artificial Fields
Product Review
You don’t have to choose between recycled tires and natural grass for athletic surfaces. There’s a spectrum of good options in between.
-
Bamboo Flooring: Still Green, for a Price
Product Review
Bamboo flooring, the rapidly renewable darling of the green building movement, is still sustainable if you are willing to pay for quality.
-
Three Lounge Seating Manufacturers Keeping Pace with High BIFMA Standards
Product Review
Three lounge seating manufacturers have been certified to BIFMA e3 level 3, but tracking chemicals of concern in these products is still a challenge.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
-
Trump’s EPA Sets New Rules for Chemicals Under TSCA
News Brief
Faster reviews and more industry-friendly risk assessments are among the changes to new TSCA rules.
-
Healthy Building Network Launches Online Forum
News Brief
The forum invites affordable housing designers to join HBN experts and others to ask questions and share information on material health.
-
GreenScreen Launches Certification for Textile Chemicals
News Brief
The hazard assessment program jumps into the certification business to promote textile chemicals with reduced health hazards.
-
EPA to Regulate Hazardous Chemicals in Building Materials
News Analysis
Asbestos, HBCD, and other chemicals face restrictions under the new Toxic Substances Control Act.
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.