Sustainable Materials
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Sustainable Materials
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
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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.
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Prefabricating Green: Building Environmentally Friendly Houses Off Site
Feature Article
Prefabricated housing offers several potential environmental benefits, including reduced transportation impacts, reduced waste, and quality control for better durability and performance. Aside from a few industry leaders, however, most manufacturers do not take full advantage of those efficiencies to create affordable high-performance houses.
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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.
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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.
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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 2020
Product Review
These innovative products reduce carbon emissions’ impacts and include energy-saving windows and insulation, plus low-carbon pavers, gypsum, and MDF.
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Pavers That Use Low-Carbon Cement
Product Review
EP Henry pavers are the first products to use Solidia, which has a smaller carbon footprint than ordinary Portland cement.
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Liquid Linoleum: Seamless Natural Flooring
Product Review
Linoleum’s natural ingredients often make it the best resilient flooring option. Corques Liquid Linoleum is a fluid-applied version for seamless applications.
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An Adjustable Cladding System with Thermal Breaks
Product Review
CL-Talon provides a cladding system that can incorporate up to ten inches of insulation and comes with thermal breaks and easy-to-adjust framing.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Trust, but Verify: How to Get the Most from Transparency Docs
News Analysis
Third-party verification of HPDs and Declare labels is a growing trend. Is it growing fast enough?
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Pritzker Winners Have Never Demolished a Building
News Brief
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have received architecture’s highest international honor.
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Antimicrobials Generally Not Recommended for COVID, CDC Confirms
News Brief
The CDC updated its guidance, stating that the risk from COVID transmission from surfaces is low risk and that disinfecting is typically not required.
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Justice, Circularity Overhauled in Cradle to Cradle v4
News Analysis
The latest version of the Cradle to Cradle product standard also expands embodied carbon requirements and replaces the controversial “banned list” with a new approach.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
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Just For Fun
Something weird happens every April at BuildingGreen...
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