Construction products

There is a growing market for green building materials for both residential and commercial buildings.  These materials can be employed within the internal construction or as part of the building's interior or exterior "skin". 

Local governmental agencies and add harsh regulatory requiremnts for the use of green products or they can offer incentives that encourage builders to take advange of products and design concepts that may be foreign or perceived as extremely costly.

High efficiency and competitive costs can be translated into dollars saved by a property owner over time, but how do we provide the developer, who is faced with the intital costs of construction, with a reason to put in products that are good for the environmet and that will benefit the consumer over time? 

Insulation

roofing materials

siding

windows and doors

solar water heating and power production

bamboo flooring

structural metal framing

passive solar design

rainwater collection

I hope subscribers will join me in addressing some of these products as well as exploring the techinques that developers can use to reduce the need for heating and cooling and how to use office and home products that present fewer health risks that many commonly used products. 

That's a great point Calistoga. We had a number of motivations for leaving out roofing, siding, windows, and flooring at the outset, but you're not the first person to have mentioned this need. It's a large data set on top of an already large product database that we're working with, but we'll definitely have to consider adding them in if that's where users' interests lie.

Also, right now we have a wiki article on rainwater collection (How to create a rain barrel) that could be amended to accommodate other techniques/strategies. Would you be willing to write something up about passive solar design? Private message me anytime if you have questions. Thanks for the great suggestions.