The 5 Questions You Need to Ask Before Choosing Green Materials

When you’re making decisions around building or remodeling your home, the materials you choose can go a long way to minimizing your home’s negative impact on the planet.  

Whether you’re building a custom home or looking to renovate, there are important questions to ask when it comes to green materials. There’s an overwhelming variety of siding, paint, and flooring options out there, and these days they almost all claim to be environmentally friendly. 

Spoiler alert: not all of them are. 

So, how do you separate the good from the bad? Here are 5 questions you should have ready to make sure the materials you’re buying are not only green certified, but look great and stay durable. 

1| How Will It Contribute To Sustainability? 

Many factors determine how certain materials impact the environment—some of these factors are more measurable than others. Manufacturers are required to provide information such as chemical off-gassing, production and quality standards, etc., to give contractors and homeowners the information they need to make decisions about green building.  

With something like exterior building materials, it’s important to consider where they have been sourced or produced, how far they had to be shipped, and how much waste is produced from the production and installation of such materials. Consulting both the builder and the manufacturer will give you a clearer picture of the inherent sustainability and eco-friendliness of the materials you end up using.  

Different kinds of materials have different criteria for you to compare. For instance, when you’re looking for insulation for walls and roofs, consider the product’s R-value (its “insulating power”), but also how it might create a more air-tight building envelope. Using spray foam insulation products provide thermal insulation, but also resist air flow, meaning less energy (and money) spent on mechanical heating and cooling. 

2| How Will It Affect My Budget? 

This is the most important question to ask at the onset of a project. Your goal may be to use the greenest products on the market, until you get your builder’s preliminary bid. Sticker shock can cause homeowners to value-engineer the sustainability right out of their project, in order to keep costs to a minimum.  

That’s why it is important to know how green materials might affect your budget, and how long-term savings from using low-maintenance and high energy-efficiency products could offset those initial cost hurdles over time.  

3| Where Is It From? 

The less distance a product has to travel to find its way into your home, the more inherently green it is. Consider the eco-cost of a piece of wood that is sourced in rural China, manufactured and refined in Shanghai, shipped to Los Angeles, and trucked to your construction site in Omaha. There is a massive carbon footprint involved in all that travel, and it affects the environmental impact of your construction project. 

Locally sourced materials—whether that’s the lumber for framing or the tile for your bathrooms—can be one of the most effective ways to construct a green home, and regional materials add a touch of “homegrown” personality to your project. 

4| How Is It Made? 

Manufacturing practices can vary widely, even if they are forced to adhere to standards set up by various agencies. If companies go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to their sustainable harvesting and production operations, they’ll usually make it immediately apparent in their marketing and brand identity. But, digging a bit deeper may reveal the truth behind some of those claims—some of those claims are disingenuous at best, or flat out lies at worst.  

It’s important to do your research—vet building materials companies online, look for certifications or memberships that the company might have posted, and find out what other homeowners and builders say about the products and materials you are considering.  

5| How Does It Perform Compared to Less Eco-Friendly Materials? 

This is the fundamental choice you’ll have to make when selecting building materials.  

If you’re choosing a green or sustainable product, it’s important to know exactly what it will be replacing, and in what capacity it will be performing. These criteria can include aesthetics, durability, warranty, builder familiarity, and cost. You can start by creating a detailed spreadsheet that compares each product, based on a set of variables you establish with your contractor, and then pick the ones that end up being the best fit for your overall vision.  

In the end, it’s all about performance, and asking the right questions about the materials you’re considering will set you up to build the most eco-friendly home possible.  


Rollex Corporation

800 Chase Avenue

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

800-251-3300

Fax: 847-437-7561

E-mail:

marketing@rollex.com