When it comes to construction of a new home, potential homeowners tend to opt for brick as their choice building materials. Although bricks are strong and durable, they are not necessarily the most environmentally friendly building materials that you could choose. In this day and age when global warming and carbon emissions are becoming a growing concern for many, more and more potential homeowners are looking for greener solutions so as to ensure they are not contributing to the decline of the environment.

Why are bricks not an ecofriendly option?

Before you can determine what building materials are the most ecofriendly option for your construction, you first have to know why bricks are not considered environmentally friendly. There are a number of reasons why bricks are harmful to the environment. Firstly, these building materials require a significant amount of energy to produce. Secondly, bricks are not easy to recycle and tend to end up in landfills, which contributes to pollution of the earth.

How do you determine ecofriendly building materials?

If you are embarking on a construction project, your choice of materials will be crucial. Not only do they have to be long-lasting to ensure the longevity of your structure, but they also have to be reasonably priced to fit within your budget. This is why you will find some homeowners gravitating toward cheaper building materials in an attempt to cost cut. Rather than using price as your deciding factor, here are some of the things that you should consider to determine whether your building materials are ecofriendly.

• Process of manufacturing the building materials: When considering the manufacturing process, the first thing you have to establish is where the building materials are sourced from. Materials that come from renewable resources such as wood from managed plantations tend to be more ecofriendly than those that are not derived from sustainable resources. The second thing to establish would be the embodied energy required for the building materials. This refers to the amount of energy used to manufacture the materials. The lower the embodied energy, the more ecofriendly the materials are.
• Insulation of the structure: the next thing to consider when determining what building materials to use would be how much insulation the materials provide. It is ideal to select materials that have good insulation properties, as these will make your structure more energy efficient. An energy efficient property would have less negative impact on the environment than one that is not energy efficient.