Sustainable Materials
Parent
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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LEED v4 and EPDs: How’s That Market Disruption Working Out for You?
Feature Short
More EPDs are appearing as a result of LEED v4, even as problems with data quality get worked out on the fly.
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What’s an HPD? Health Product Declaration FAQs
Feature Short
We answer frequently asked questions on HPDs, which allow manufacturers to disclose product ingredients and hazards.
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Different Tools for Different Jobs: How HPDs Fit In
Feature Short
Why do we need Health Product Declarations when we have safety data sheets, Cradle to Cradle, Declare, and other frameworks?
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How Google Uses HPDs to Choose Building Products
Feature Short
The Portico program turns chemical disclosure into a powerful decision-making tool.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
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Volatile Organic Compounds: Definitions Matter
Explainer
Because of how air-quality regulators define VOCs, judging a product's contribution to indoor air quality using only VOC content can be misleading.
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Binders in Manufactured Wood Products: Beyond Formaldehyde
Explainer
Concerned about emissions regulations, the manufactured wood products industry is moving away from glues formulated with urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde.
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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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All About Formaldehyde
Explainer
A naturally occurring organic compound used in binders for composite wood products, among other things, formaldehyde can create serious health problems in those exposed to high concentrations.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
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Metal Coatings
Product Guide
These coatings have VOC levels below 50 g/l and contain no chromium, cadmium, or hazardous airborne pollutants.
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Interior Paints
Product Guide
These coatings meet the highest industry standards for both indoor emissions and durability.
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Interior Stains and Clear Coatings
Product Guide
These stains and finishes are below SCAQMD standards for VOCs and contain no heavy metals, phthalates, or aromatic solvents.
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Engineered Wood
Product Guide
These sustainably sourced structural timbers offer low indoor emissions and other environmental benefits.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
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Recycled-Content Paint Standard Released
News Analysis
A new latex paint standard addresses product quality, performance, VOC content, and additive- and recycled-content levels.
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Report Guides Carbon Offset Customers
News Analysis
A new report helps buyers evaluate providers of carbon offsets, which help individuals and buildings reduce their carbon footprints.
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Canada Puts Chemicals Under Scrutiny
News Analysis
The Canadian government has unveiled a new plan to assess 4,000 potentially toxic chemicals.
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Steelcase Receives MBDC Certification for Workstation
News Analysis
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
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Chemicals Article Lacked Balance
Op-Ed
Reader Ross Leonard challenges us on our reporting in the recent article on chemicals in green building.
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EBN's Position on Fly Ash
Op-Ed
EBN is concerned about heavy metals leaching from products made with fly ash, and thinks these products should only be used if they reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere or if the risk of leaching is very low.
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A New Edge in Specifying Green Building Products
Op-Ed
BuildingGreen will link our Web-based green products resource, GreenSpec, with the Healthy Building Network's Pharos Project to provide one trusted, authoritative, independent source for specifying green building products, information and research.
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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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Construction Emissions: A Virtual Roundtable
Webcast
In this one-hour panel discussion, we will tap the leading experts on estimating and tracking construction emissions and talk about best practices for reducing this slice of a project’s carbon footprint.
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The BuildingGreen Guide to Building Product Certifications and Ecolabels- Discounted
Special Report
This BuildingGreen publication provides a no-nonsense guide to the world of green building product certifications to help designers, purchasers, manufacturers, and others in the industry to focus on what is significant and relevant so that market forces can work and the industry can focus on bigger issues.
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The Missing Embodied Carbon Link: Construction
Feature
Some researchers say construction emissions could account for as much as 30% of a project’s embodied carbon. What can be done about it?
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Getting Low-Carbon Concrete into Your Next Project: A Virtual Roundtable
Webcast
In this one-hour deep dive, we’ll speak with industry experts on current and potential low-carbon concrete technologies, how to track concrete’s embodied carbon, and how to specify viable low-carbon concrete.
Register here: https://www.buildinggreen.com/webcast/lc-concrete
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