oa Sustainable building materials: Green even below the surface?

When it comes to material selection, green is now much more than a color – or is it? Material manufacturers are eager to pitch materials as sustainable or LEED certified or any number of valid and invalid qualifiers, and leave it to the consumer to sort the fact from fiction. Combining this with a growing interest from final clients in the specification of specific materials to support either a heartfelt or marketing desire of sustainability, the resulting confusion is inevitable. In the end, there are many factors contributing to sustainability when it comes to materials and their use in buildings. This paper will address the following:

Raw materials

Weight

Labor (time and materials)

Performance

Integration

In addition, the paper will present a list of recent material developments in the area of sustainability.