Why Are Sustainable Building Materials So Important?

Increased environmental concerns over the past few years have resulted in an increased drive to develop sustainable building materials.

More and more construction projects are being completed using sustainable building materials. These materials offer a number of advantages, both economic and environmental.

Choosing the right materials

When choosing a building material for a construction project, a number of factors need to be considered when determining how sustainable the material is. These materials need to be harvested from renewable rather than non-renewable resources. The environmental impact of the material chosen must be considered over the whole life-cycle of the project, rather than merely over the short term.

Many factors to consider

Resource efficiency is an important factor to keep in mind. This refers to materials that can be used as efficiently as possible with a minimum of effort.

For example, choosing materials that include a sizeable amount of recycled, post-consumer or post-industrial content, makes a project more efficient, as does choose materials that have been produced locally to reduce transportation costs.

How are the materials being manufactured?

How the building materials are manufactured is also something that needs to be kept in mind.

• Is the manufacturing process itself sustainable?
• Was renewable energy used to power the process, and were waste products kept to a minimum?
• Were steps taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Reusing salvaged building materials from other projects or other buildings is another important strategy for making a construction project more sustainable. This helps to save resources in several ways. First of all, these materials are reused, rather than being disposed of in a landfill.

Second, reusing materials reduces the amount of energy that is needed, since new building materials do not have to be manufactured from scratch. The amount of energy that is required to refurbish these old materials is significantly less than the amount that would be required to manufacture brand-new materials.

Increasing sustainability

The overall design of a building should also serve to enhance the sustainability of the materials that are used. Buildings should be designed to be as energy-efficient as possible to avoid wasting excess power on heating, cooling, and lighting. By choosing the right material, architects can dramatically reduce the amount of energy that is required for a building’s operations.

There are many questions that need to be answered when you are considering using sustainable building materials in a construction project. By keeping these principles in mind, you can ensure that your next project is as environmentally friendly as possible.

For more information on the role green roofing systems can play in sustainable buildings, please visit the dedicated section on our website by clicking here or call us on Tel. No. 020 8916 2222.