Are you a professional looking
for information about green materials?
The EcoDesign Foundation has an extensive library of literature on currently available materials and will respond to written requests for information that clearly describe the nature of the project for which the materials will be used.
Whilst we are a non-profit organisation that exists to promote sustainable design, we are for the same reason poorly resourced, and therefore request that all requests for information for use in commercial work be accompanied with a tax deductible donation.
For more substantial consultancies on sustainable development, see the website of Team DES.
EDF has a distinct approach (which it refers to via the term 'sustainments' — see the What are Sustainments? section of this website for an explanation) which privileges design for extended life through careful detailing, maintenance regimes and design for materials recovery in addition to conventional 'green specification' decisions. For an example of this approach, you may wish to consult our benchmark publication Timber in Context: A Guide to Sustainable Use [Sydney: Construction Information Systems, 1997] and other EDF publications.
You may consider helping EDF out with its research into the sustainability of materials, monitoring and reporting on particular areas of interest. Have a look at the Ways of Participating section of EDF. Or, help us to review on-line sustainable materials databases for our links pages.
