Material Selection
Selecting building materials can be complex. You have to take into account toxicity, performance, the environmental life cycle, cost, and other factors.
Understanding what makes a building product green is a long-term prospect. Green characteristics differ from product category to product category, and multi-attribute vetting is critical.
Material Selection
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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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.
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Why Chemical Transparency Matters
Feature Article
You can’t manage what you don’t measure—especially if you don’t know it exists in the first place.
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What Makes Plumbing Green? BuildingGreen’s Guide to Plumbing Products
Feature Article
People like a clean flush and a long shower, but water is getting scarcer. Selecting the right building products can meet both needs.
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EPDs Are the Future of the Building Industry, Whether You Like It or Not
Feature Article
Environmental product declarations are taking off, but can they actually fly? Experts share the ups and downs of this promising but imperfect transparency tool.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Life-Cycle Assessment: Tracing a Product's Impacts
Explainer
Life-cycle assessment—accounting for all of the environmental impacts of a product from its manufacture to its disposal—is a simple concept, but using it to compare products in practice can be difficult.
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Drywall Options: Paper-Faced, Monolithic, or Fiberglass-Faced?
Explainer
Drywall types differ in cost, recyclability, and response to moisture and mold.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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New PVC-Free Resilient Flooring Options
Product Review
Shaw is now offering biobased and recycled PET resilient flooring options for commercial and healthcare applications.
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Polystyrene Insulations Are Now HBCD-Free
Product Review
Dow, Owens Corning, and Kingspan have joined the EPS industry in eliminating the hazardous halogenated flame retardant HBCD from their XPS insulations.
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New Insulated Metal Panels without Halogenated Flame Retardants
Product Review
Kingspan and Centria IMPs are using halogen-free flame retardants, resulting in less toxic, better performing insulated cladding.
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BuildingGreen Announces Top 10 Products for 2018
Product Review
Our innovative Top 10 product selections improve IAQ, save energy and water, contain fewer hazardous materials, and promote material transparency.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Green Seal’s LEED-Compliant GS-11 Paint Standard is Back
News Brief
Green Seal’s GS-11 Paint certification has been updated and can now be used to earn points in LEED v4.1.
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Historic HFC Climate Rule Will Slash U.S. Emissions
News Brief
With EPA's new HFC rule, the Biden administration just finalized one of the most important greenhouse-gas-reduction initiatives in U.S. history.
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Methodology in Development for Factoring FSC into LCAs
News Brief
Forest management practices have a big impact on the carbon benefits of using wood products. SCS has laid out how to do the calculations. -
New Directions for Mindful Materials
News Brief
More than a database, mindful Materials is taking on an advocacy and convener role focused on healthy and sustainable materials.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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The Big Materials Dream Needs to Include Climate Change and More
Op-Ed
We’re finally getting vital toxicity information about building products. But let’s remember that sustainability is about more than avoiding health hazards.
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Finding the Building Products You Need to Do WELL
Blog Post
The WELL Building Standard has stringent transparency and health criteria for products and materials. Here’s how to find what you’ll need for certification.
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4 Insider Tips for Choosing Flashing Tapes, from a Real-Life Engineer
Blog Post
A research engineer at Pella Windows finally offers some adult supervision for our benchtop tape tests.
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Choosing Windows: New Report Addresses Cost, Performance
Op-Ed
A new report from BuildingGreen helps you choose windows for a project, find the right balance among seven key decision drivers, including cost, performance, aesthetics, and more.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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Using Low-Carbon Concrete in Your Next Project
Spotlight Report
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Breaking Barriers to Building Material Reuse
Webcast
Buildings aren’t garbage. These three circularity loop-closers are making it easier and easier to reuse materials.
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Waste Not, Want Not: Case Studies of Building Material Reuse
Spotlight Report
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Sustainable Design 101: A Syllabus Supplement
Syllabus Supplement
College professors: here’s a curriculum module you can use to introduce students to sustainable design using BuildingGreen articles. Feel free to cherry pick content that fits your syllabus.
Just For Fun
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