The green materials race is on. Exhibit floors across the country feature companies showcasing green innovations. Collectively, we have walked the biggest show floors in the past three years, hunting for our next library addition, but we found that expos lacked truly new, ground-breaking products. We returned home empty-handed, leading us to believe that material specifiers cannot and should not rely solely on trade shows to introduce them to innovative green materials. If you want to build your own green library, you can take matters into your own hands by learning about where to look for green products, understanding certifications, and building a personal information network.

Great initial on-line sources for finding green materials are: Material ConneXion; Rate It Green; Building Green; The Green Building Center; and GreenSource. While access to Material ConneXion is fee-based and not all listed products are green, these search engines are valuable clearing houses that supply information about hundreds of green materials. Always research further to ascertain any green claims you encounter, however.

There are a few third-party rating programs available that provide a comprehensive overview of certain green materials. The most influential are Pharos, BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability), and The ATHENA Institute, all life-cycle assessment (LCA)-based tools that examine every stage of a product. Pharos rates materials based on three categories: Environment – Resource (resource extraction); Health – Pollution (application); and Social – Community (manufacturing). BEES rates them according to twelve potential environmental impacts. One drawback to all three is that there are so few products rated. This will change in time as these systems gain momentum. For now, Pharos has taken down its product listing to further enhance it; a new version should be posted in 2009. While all three systems are free to users, product inclusion in BEES requires a hefty fee, leading to an even more limited list.

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