Category: Perspectives
-
Bringing Order to Innovation: How AI and CSI MasterFormat Are Shaping Red2Green’s Future
Red2Green is harnessing AI and CSI MasterFormat to bring clarity, consistency, and innovation to sustainable product categorization. Our smarter system empowers architects, builders, and consultants to easily discover and specify healthier materials—accelerating better choices through an intuitive, industry-aligned library built for the future of design and construction. Read more
-
Plastics: Versatile? Yes. Problematic? Also Yes.
Plastic pollution has permeated both natural and built environments, leading to significant concerns for its impact on human health, degradation of ecosystems, and an alarming toll taken on marine species—including those that once enriched our diets. Read more
-
The Power of Making Better Choices: Reflections from Greenbuild
The collective mindset at events like Greenbuild is what makes them so powerful, with presenters and attendees from corporate, governmental, and not-for-profit organizations engaging in conversation and collaboration. We move forward as we share knowledge and align our efforts. No one is going to win sustainability; we are all in this together. Read more
-
Making It Easier: Collaborative Approaches for Better Choices
Rather than allowing the concept of easy to lull us into complacency as we wait for the discovery of a one-size-fits-all solution, perhaps a more productive question is: how can we unify our message to keep the market moving toward healthy and sustainable product selection across all product types? Read more
-
How do I Reduce Embodied Carbon in My Building?
When it comes to building projects, embodied carbon is increasingly recognized as a critical part of climate action. If your organization wants to reduce embodied carbon in your building projects, what can you do? That depends on your project. Read more
-
Why Are We So Sick—and What Can We Do?
As many of us age, some start to wonder why we don’t feel so good anymore. Millions experience chronically occurring diseases and conditions that have developed in us over our lifetimes. Health care costs alone, according to PLANSPONSOR magazine, are estimated at $285,000 for a retired couple! Read more
-
How Healthier Products Embody Social Justice
The Materially Better Team believes that seeking healthier building products presents substantial opportunities for addressing social, racial and environmental justice issues. Here is why: Read more
-
Flame Retardants: A Cautionary Tale
We all have moments when our personal and professional lives intersect. For me a particularly poignant moment involved a couch and my first Living Building Challenge project. I was just starting research on products, learning about chemicals of concern and, more important, exactly where they are used in building products. Including furniture. Read more
-
Building with Healthier Materials: It’s Not Just Concrete and Gypsum Board
According to a 2020 AIA analysis of sustainability trends, 80% of architects would like to specify more sustainable materials. Yet, the study also showed that only one in three architects believe they are now meeting this responsibility. Read more
-
ECON 101: Healthier Materials Edition
True progress on climate change requires government action, a notion perhaps best summarized by environmentalist Rev. Fred Small, “Changing a light bulb is good. Changing a senator is better.” Read more