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Finding Greener Materials

   Goal: Search for greener materials in many sources, both online and print.

There are many places to find new, exotic materials, or just more information on common materials. Some sources list “green” materials only, while others list many “non-green” materials as well, but remember to choose the material that optimizes the sustainability of the whole system.  Some sources may list environmental or health impacts alongside physical properties of materials. Some compare common materials, like the Instructables charts. You often get best results by trying several sources.

Books and Articles

• Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open by Allwood and Cullen (2012)
• Materials and the Environment by Ashby (2013)
• Design + Environment, Chapter 4 by Helen Lewis
• Sustainability Metrics: LCA and Green Design in Polymers by Tabone, Cregg JJ, Beckman El, and Landis AE (2010)
• Creating Safe and Healthy Spaces by Rossi and Lent (2006) (green plastics article)
• Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice by Anastas (2000)

Catalogs of Green Materials

• Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Registry (free access; lists all C2C certified products)
• Fair Trade certified products database by Flocert (free access; lists Fair Trade certified companies)
• FSC Certificate Database of wood & paper products (free access; lists all FSC certified products)
• SA8000 Certified Facilities List by Social Accountability International (free access; lists all companies / factories SA8000 certified)
• MiniWiz material upcycling database (free access; furniture, architectural, & textile products)
• Environmental Working Group’s database of cleaning chemicals (free access; lists EWG-certified and scores non-certified)
• EcoSpecifier (free access; architectural, cleaning products, personal care products; includes certification data)
• Cleangredients (free access; lists chemicals meeting US EPA Safer Choice standard; largely cleaning products)
• Sustainable Packaging Coalition library (members only)
• MaterialDistrict.com (free access; only some materials are green)
• Material Connexion (only some materials are green; has physical libraries in several cities)
• Transmaterial (only some materials are green)

Databases and Analysis Software

• Granta CES Selector (expensive offline software; mostly physical properties, but some environmental / LCA data)
• Paid LCA software (e.g. SimaPro desktop, GaBi desktop, SustainableMinds online, etc.)
• Ecolizer LCA software (free online; in English, Dutch, German, or French)
• Ecolizer LCA lookup table (free PDF, but limited data)
• Idemat LCA phone app (free app by TU Delft, extensive data)
• SolidWorks Sustainability (free & pro LCA-light plugins for SolidWorks CAD software)
• Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Materials Sustainability Index (free access; fabric / soft goods list with non-LCA sustainability scores)
• MatWeb (free access; no sustainability data, but detailed mechanical & other data)
• Plastic Fantastic Library (via the Internet Archive, may be slow or non-functional; plastics only; only some materials are green; sophisticated filtering and charting)

Chemical toxicity libraries

• Pharos Chemical & Material Library (easiest for non-experts to read; toxicity data for both good and bad materials)
• NIOSH pocket guide to chemical hazards (free access; toxicity data for both good and bad materials)
• ChemSec “Sin List” (free access; hazardous chemicals with toxicity data)
• US National Library of Medicine’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank, “HSDB” (free access)
• ChemHat (free access; toxicity data only listing bad data, not good data)
• European Chemical Agency (ECHA)’s Registered Substances Database  (free access; difficult for non-toxicologists to read)
• International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS)’s INCHEM (free access; difficult for non-toxicologists to read)
• Cradle to Cradle Banned List of Chemicals (free access; list of chemicals that will immediately disqualify a product from Cradle to Cradle certification)

Below is a deep-dive video (25-minutes) taking you through the resources above step-by-step, as on the Exercise page.

Click on the exercise below to get started.

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