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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Can We Replace Foam Insulation?
Feature Article
There are a lot of reasons to avoid foam, but its high performance can make it a hard habit to kick, as designers are finding out.
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Whole-Building Life-Cycle Assessment: Taking the Measure of a Green Building
Feature Article
Why we will never understand the true impact of our buildings—and how we should try to anyway
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Stone, The Original Green Building Material
Feature Article
Stone is natural and durable, emits no VOCs, requires almost no maintenance, and provides a connection to the earth and our history.
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Getting Flame Retardants Out of Foam Insulation
Feature Article
In an effort to eliminate the use of halogenated flame retardants, building code changes are being proposed by a group of fire experts, architects, chemists, and environmentalists.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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BuildingGreen Announces Top-10 Products for 2015
Product Review
Transformative products eliminate toxic chemicals and fossil fuels, and improve building and site performance.
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Passive House Windows and Doors Continue to Wow
Product Review
Exciting new doors and windows featuring cork, composites, and low U-factors have come to U.S. markets.
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BuildingGreen Selects Top-10 Products for 2014
Product Review
Solving key design and environmental problems cost-effectively was the focus of this year's selection by BuildingGreen's editors of its top building products.
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Laminate Flooring: Worth a Second Look?
Product Review
Laminate flooring offers recycled content and low emissions in an economical, low-maintenance product that has overcome aesthetic and performance challenges.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Manufacturers to Architects: Buy Greener Products or They May Go Away
News Analysis
Designers asked for transparency and got it. Now they need to follow through with specs, say producers.
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AIA Writes ‘Prescription’ for Healthier Materials
News Brief
A new publication published by AIA provides guidance on how to put healthier material selection into practice.
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Would Wood Skyscrapers Improve Urban Sustainability?
News Analysis
Plans to build a wood skyscraper in Tokyo will promote large-scale mass timber construction in cities.
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Mass Timber to Be Recognized in Washington Code
News Brief
Supporters of Washington’s new mass timber law hope it will increase tall wood construction.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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- 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...
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- 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.
