Top Five Eco-Friendly Building Materials

If you’re trying to be eco-friendly while building your dream home, you might think there’s no way you can compensate for the carbon emissions and resources that you use. However, if you stick to using green companies and you choose your building materials carefully, you could stand to create a truly environmentally friendly home.

Make sure you use materials such as the following:

1. Bamboo

Bamboo is an incredibly eco-friendly building material that can be used for a variety of building jobs. Whether you choose to go the whole hog and create your entire house out of bamboo (which has been done in China) or you use it to craft certain aspects of your new property, you’re sure to enjoy this building material.

Bamboo is incredibly fast-growing, which means it can be replanted and reforested very quickly. It can be grown across the world as well, so you don’t need to have it shipped in from across the globe.

bamboo closeup with green leaf shutterstock_130371773

2. Reclaimed lumber

If wood is a central aspect of your building plan, you should use reclaimed lumber rather than choosing freshly felled wood from an environmentally unfriendly source. This wood has been reclaimed from demolished structures and products, and has been reworked into new wood. It’s just another form of recycling that can help you on your way to sustainability.

3. Recycled metal

Mining has caused many terrible environmental impacts, such as sinkholes, soil contamination and disturbances to natural habitats around the world. Many metals can easily be recycled though, so there’s no need to be against the mining industry. Iron, aluminium and copper are the three most recycled metals in the world, meaning you could easily include them in your building design.

4. Dimension stone

Dimension stone is a natural building material that can be sourced with relative ease. It is preferable over certain metals, glass and plastics that can pollute the environment, which often use a lot of resources to create. Dimension stone can also be reclaimed, which could be an even better option for your building.

5. Sheep’s wool

When planning the insulation for your property, choosing an eco-friendly option such as sheep’s wool is always preferable. It’s completely sustainable and natural, and it has better insulating properties than some manmade options. For instance, it is usually thicker than glass wool cellulose and mineral wool insulation, and uses less energy to manufacture.

Choosing eco-friendly building materials is often the first step to creating as green a property as possible. Do you know of any other materials that you could use in a green construction plan?

This article was written by Aurora Johnson on behalf of Flat Pack Houses, a specialist in wood products for building projects. Flat Pack Houses is able to provide everything from full log homes to trussed rafters, so visit the official website to find out more now.

Photo: Bamboo closeup with green leaf from Shutterstock