Every building material comes with an environmental cost of some sort. However, some principles can help guide your choice of sustainable materials and construction systems. Careful analysis and selection of materials and the way they are combined can yield significant improvements in the comfort and cost effectiveness of your home, and greatly reduce its life cycle environmental impact. Includes case studies.

After 20 years renovating other people’s houses and gardens demonstrating sustainable design ideas, Josh Byrne (environmental scientist & well known ABC TV’s Gardening Australia presenter) has undertaken his most ambitious house project yet – the design and construction of two 10 star energy efficient family homes in the Fremantle suburb of Hilton. Tired of hearing that sustainable construction has to cost more, Josh and his colleagues set out to prove that resource efficient homes can be built at a comparable cost and timeframe to regular houses.

The types of materials selected at the design stage of building a home will impact fundamentally on its longer-term sustainability. These choices have implications for saving energy, improving bushfire resilience and improving comfort. Building materials typically considered to be 'green' include renewable plant materials like straw and mud brick, timber from forests certified to be sustainably managed, recycled materials and other products that are non-toxic, reusable and renewable.

AN ECO-friendly cement, known as Alkali Pozzolan Cement (APC), containing a mixture of fly ash, dry lime powder and sodium sulphate under specific scaffolding conditions has been developed by Curtin University research.

Students from the University of Melbourne have developed a revolutionary machine to create low-cost, environmentally sustainable building materials, which is expected to have substantial applications in developing countries.

An Australian company has started to make concrete which promises to dramatically cut the carbon dioxide ordinarily emitted during production. Concrete is the second most widely used material on earth, after water. Figures vary, but it’s estimated that the manufacture of cement, the reactive ingredient in concrete, is responsible for over 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions.

Rethink Building Materials will equip you with the knowledge to achieve the best you can when selecting the right materials when renovating or building your home that is efficient, comfortable and does not cost the earth. Written by thirty-five of Australia’s world-leading thinkers and practitioners of sustainable building design Rethink Building Materials is an excellent hands-on guide.

Have you ever considered the impact of building construction on carbon dioxide emissions? Clark Hyland, Manager, Steel Construction New Zealand Inc, explains why steel building construction is more sustainable and has a lower carbon footprint.