Where to Buy Green Building Materials
Only a small percentage of people build their own homes, but whether you do or don’t, the building industry can switch to greener materials (like straw bale bricks over concrete).
Straw bale homes are as safe as wood and naturally insulated, yet we burn colossal amounts of waste straw each year, which could be used to build clean cheap homes on brownfield areas. They are often plastered with clay.
If you’re planning to build your own home, find suitable materials from Ecomerchant and MicroLouvre (a woven fabric from scrap metal that lasts 60 years to remove the sun’s heat with no power needed – it’s fire-rated and can even be used to shade traffic lights). Read Green Home Building.
Sugarcrete is a low-carbon alternative to concrete bricks, developed by a London university. It combines sugarcane (leftover from producing sugar) with sand-mineral binders, to end up with a brick that has carbon footprint six times lower than clay bricks.
Sugarcane is the world’s largest produced crop, so there is substantial waste material. It also produces the Sugarcrete flooring slab, which is reusable and fire-resistant.
Ecobrix Woodcrete are made in the UK and easy to use and build with as blocks. Made from wood waste and cement, they are robust as bricks, but with the thermal advantages of wood. They also cost around a third less than traditional bricks.
Ecological Building Systems offers many green building products including insulation made from grass and recycled jute.
Reclaimed Brick Company offers nationwide delivery of reclaimed bricks, which are ideal for restoring period properties. They are cleaned to remove old mortar and debris, then repointed and sometimes resized for a quality and consistent batch. The same company offers:
London Reclaimed Brick Merchants also offers reclaimed bricks.
Salvage Reclamation Yards offer real finds, for period homes.
