Building Materials

Websites

  • Amicus Green Building Center. As well as offering design consultation and energy analysis, Amicus Green Building Center sells a wide range of green building materials.
  • Building Green, LLC. Focused on whole-systems design, Building Green provides resources for green building and design.
  • The Construction Carbon Calculator. A tool that helps developers, builders, architects and land planners approximate the net embodied carbon of a project's structures and site.
  • CRI Green Label Testing Program. Provides indoor air quality standards for carpeting and rugs.
  • EcoBuilding Pulse. A magazine about green building, which contains links to digital versions of Eco-structure, an excellent source for articles on green building case-studies and products.
  • Eco Business Links. This site will help locate manufacturers of sustainable materials. A great source for finding local dealers.
  • EcoChoices. An Internet shopping store for purchasing many materials and interior furnishings that are earth-friendly.
  • EcoLogo. A Canadian certification program for products in more than 120 categories. Categories range from products used at home and in the office to products used during construction and development.
  • EcoMall. This site lists thousands of eco-friendly products and materials. Easy to navigate.
  • Green Building Pages. A database for sustainable building materials and design.
  • Green Building Store (UK). Owned by Environmental Construction Products Ltd, this site provides various products from low flow fixtures to natural insulation.
  • Green Seal. Provides standards for various household products.
  • Habitat for Humanity. Lists building supply resale stores by state.
  • LEED Standards For Interiors. From the U.S. Green Building Council.
  • MPI Green Performance Standard for Paints and Coatings.
  • Oikos Green Building Library. Oikos.com provides a product directory for green products, as well as a digital library teaching about various aspects of green products and building practices.  
  • University of Wisconsin Solid and Hazardous Waste Center.  "Building Green Guide " (PDF, 120 pages). This terrific and very complete green building guide is available as downloadable document and has an extensive list of national building suppliers, as well as regional distributors for those in the upper Midwest.

Articles

  • "Printing Green," by Cassie Hart, Dynamic Graphics , April/May 2005, p. 50-57.
  • “Evaluating and Selecting Green Products”, John Amatruda,RA, Whole Building Design Guide, 2007.
  • “Shedding Light on the Pharos Project: A Tool For Evaluating Building Products Moves Forward”, Jeff Stephens, Eco-structure, November/December 2007.

Organizations

Books

  • Baking Soda: Over 500 Fabulous, Fun and Frugal Uses You’ve Probably Never Thought of, Vicki Lansky, Book Peddlers, 1995, 2004.

  • Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions, Annie Berthold-Bond (Three Rivers Press, 1999). Contains 868 practical formulas for making your own cleaners, paints, stains, dyes, etc. out of natural materials. This book is a wonderful tool kit for museums on a low budget looking for safe cleaning alternatives.

  • Clean & Green, Annie B. Bond, Ceres Press, 1990, 1994.

  • Clean House, Clean Planet, Karen Logan, Pocket, 1997.

  • Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product Selection and Specification, Second Edition.

  • Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home, Linda Mason Hunter & Mikki Halpin, Melcher Media, 2005.

  • Green This! Volume One, Greening Your Cleaning, Deidre Imus, Simon & Shuster, 2007.

  • The HOK Handbook, Sandra Mendler and William Odell. An invaluable and comprehensive guide to green building by one of the country's leading architectural firms, the handbook features 24 case studies of HOK designed projects. While revolving mostly around green building construction, the book offers practical guideline of balancing budget, schedules, market demands with ecological principles.

  • Home Enlightenment: Practical, Earth-Friendly advice for creating a nurturing, healthy, and toxin-free home and lifestyle, Annie B. Bond, Rodale, 2005.

  • Home Safe Home, Debra Lynn Dadd, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., 1997

  • Sustaining the Earth: Choosing Consumer Products that Are Safe for You, Your Family, and the Earth, Debra-Dadd-Redalla (Hearst Communications Inc., 1994). This comprehensive guide explains how to judge products for their sustainability—for their ability to be produced, used and discarded ecologically. Well researched and thorough, this book provides solid definitions of sustainability and overviews of products using sustainability criteria.

  • The GreenSpec Directory, published by Environmental Building News, Brattleboro, VT. This 5th edition of GreenSpec Directory includes information on more than 1,850 green building products carefully screened by the editors of Environmental Building News. While designed for buildings, many sections are very useful for the exhibit designer. For directory call 802-257-7300, or visit http://buildinggreen.com

  • The Green Book of Household Hints, Marjorie Harris, Firefly Books, 2001.

  • The Naturally Clean House: 101 Safe and Easy Herbal Formulas, Karen Siegel-Maier, Storey Books, 1999.

  • Vinegar: Over 400 Various, Versatile, and Very Good Uses You’ve Probably Never Thought of, Vicki Lansky and Martha Campbell, Book Peddlers, 2003.

Disclaimer

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