(return to Choosing Greener Materials description page)
Online Tools and Resources
- Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open by Allw ood and Cullen (2012)
- Materials and the Environment by Ashby (2013)
- Design + Environment, Chapter 4 by Helen Lewis
- Sustainability Metrics: LCA and Green Design in Polymers by Tabone, Cregg JJ, Beckman El, and Landis AE (2010)
- Creating Safe and Healthy Spaces by Rossi and Lent (2006) (green plastics article)
- Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice by Anastas (2000)
Catalogs of Green Materials
- Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Registry (free access; lists all C2C certified products)
- Fair Trade certified products database by Flocert (free access; lists Fair Trade certified companies)
- FSC Certificate Database of wood & paper products (free access; lists all FSC certified products)
- SA8000 Certified Facilities List by Social Accountability International (free access; lists all companies / factories SA8000 certified)
- MiniWiz material upcycling database (free access; furniture, architectural, & textile products)
- Environmental Working Group’s database of cleaning chemicals (free access; lists EWG-certified and scores non-certified)
- EcoSpecifier (free access; architectural, cleaning products, personal care products; includes certification data)
- Cleangredients (free access; lists chemicals meeting US EPA Safer Choice standard; largely cleaning products)
- Sustainable Packaging Coalition library (members only)
- MaterialDistrict.com (free access; only some materials are green)
- Material Connexion (only some materials are green; has physical libraries in several cities)
- Transmaterial (only some materials are green)
Databases and Analysis Software
- Granta CES Selector (expensive offline software; mostly physical properties, but some environmental / LCA data)
- Paid LCA software (e.g. SimaPro desktop, GaBi desktop, SustainableMinds online, etc.)
- Ecolizer LCA software (free online; in English, Dutch, German, or French)
- Ecolizer LCA lookup table (free PDF, but limited data)
- Idemat LCA phone app (free app by TU Delft, extensive data)
- SolidWorks Sustainability (free & pro LCA-light plugins for SolidWorks CAD software)
- Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Materials Sustainability Index (free access; fabric / soft goods list with non-LCA sustainability scores)
- MatWeb (free access; no sustainability data, but detailed mechanical & other data)
- Plastic Fantastic Library (via the Internet Archive, may be slow or non-functional; plastics only; only some materials are green; sophisticated filtering and charting)
Chemical toxicity libraries
- Pharos Chemical & Material Library (easiest for non-experts to read; toxicity data for both good and bad materials)
- NIOSH pocket guide to chemical hazards (free access; toxicity data for both good and bad materials)
- ChemSec “Sin List” (free access; hazardous chemicals with toxicity data)
- US National Library of Medicine’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank, “HSDB” (free access)
- European Chemical Agency (ECHA)’s Registered Substances Database (free access; difficult for non-toxicologists to read)
- International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS)’s INCHEM (free access; difficult for non-toxicologists to read)
- Cradle to Cradle Banned List of Chemicals (free access; list of chemicals that will immediately disqualify a product from Cradle to Cradle certification)
References
- Instructables. (2017, 6 oktober). Choosing greener plastics. Instructables. https://www.instructables.com/Choosing-Greener-Plastics/