What are Green Properties?

Building Materials

Technology Snapshot & Benefits:
You can save a lot of money and avoid future headaches by choosing and installing building materials that are safe and appropriate. There is no specific cookbook path to success with building materials. However, your decisions may be usefully guided by asking the following questions:

How well do the alternatives stack up in terms of performance? How well do they do the job for which they are intended? [Recall the sort of discussion found in the roofing industry about sheathing materials the lower cost of particle-board vs. the superior nail-holding ability of more costly plywood]

What unexpected result might occur from each alternative building material? Consider safety issues such as off-gassing of glues from composite building materials and potential radon-emissions of some rock- or earth-based materials.

What toxic effects might be associated with each alternative? Remember that lead in paint was great as an inhibitor of mildew (before its use was banned), but also that lead is linked with blood and bone cancers and other maladies and that a primary exposure pathway to humans was via lead in paint.

What waste streams are associated with the manufacture of alternative building materials?

How recyclable will the material be at the end of its useful life? For example, steel or tin (terne) roofing may be easily recycled into other uses, while asphalt shingles are usually landfilled because recycling is difficult.

To the maximum extent possible, you should think through design options and be mindful of potential consequences (both good and bad) of the choices that you make with building materials.

(Information provided by Eco-Broker, 2007)