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Green Building Materials
Fact Sheets
Building with environmentally friendly materials should be the goal for any construction project. Environmentally friendly materials include those materials that contain recycled content, materials that have energy-efficient and non-polluting production processes, materials that are sustainably harvested, and those materials that generate minimal off-gassing when installed. While there are any number of green building materials available many of them – such as bamboo flooring or sustainably harvested wood siding – are cost prohibitive for projects such as affordable housing.
Environmental Works has been conducting research on green building materials appropriate for projects serving low-income communities in the Pacific Northwest. A special focus of this investigation has been those material choices that have environmental benefits but that add little or no cost to project construction. Examples include the incorporation of fly ash in concrete or using gypsum wallboard containing recycled content. The fact sheets
included here contain
information on the overall environmental issues associated with each material, as well as local suppliers and cost information.
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