Are you looking to gain an environmental advantage but never know where to look for guidance and material? Ecolect is a great site with a simple mission: “To provide the tools and resources that make it easier for you to design responsibly.”

They have created a Material NutritionLabel™ which is based on proven facts that can determine the environmental impact of a product or material. I strongly believe sustainability is no longer an ideal but needs to become a reality. The objective of this company will help that to be realized. The site also mentions their service provides:

1. An easy-to-use website featuring only materials with sustainable attributes, a place that stimulates discussion about defining sustainability and is a source of accurate information
2. A place for you to contribute user reviews and images of materials you use
3. Helpful case studies on successful sustainable design
4. An informative blog that discusses how design and ecology affect the world

This is a great concept and I am eager to monitor this site and the future of how we rate and use sustainable materials.

An quick look at Ecolect's "Material NutritionLabel"

In an earlier post we discussed the use of cardboard in furniture making or building and touted it as a great green material. In fact, cardboard will be a larger player in years to come in a lot of what we build. Check out the following examples of how it is used.

Cardboard House

A cardboard house would be not only sustainable but also exceedingly affordable. This house is designed with exterior waterproofing and water storage under the floor to protect it from the water and from blowing over in the wind. Of course, cardboard is also a highly collapsible building material, making the shipment of the house also more environmentally friendly, efficient and inexpensive.

Cardboard School – Westborough School

An intensive year-long study into the viability of cardboard as a construction material by the Buro Happold RDI team led to a project to design a building from the material for Westborough School.

Being made from post-consumer waste paper, cardboard has the potential to be a very ‘green’ building material. In this project, cardboard was used in structural tubes to support the roof, structural panels principally to stiffen the timber frame, as insulation for the walls and roof and also as surface layers. Oddly enough, this was developed in 2001!

As designers of furniture, we often get caught up in the beauty of the material. Wood. Simple, strong, organic and plain wood is classic and a brilliant material to work with. Given that, ever think of using cardboard? Yeap. So much emphasis is being put on green and recyclable material, why not? It is inexpensive, light-weight but durable and somewhat dense. Others are using it successfully now. Check out some of these uses:

Foldschool Cardboard Furniture

FlexibleLove

Cardboard Bookshelf and Sideboard by Reinhard Dienes

Cardboard will play a larger role in our materials. Consider it as a replacement for the core material of wood.  Why not? It is lighter and its density is fair. Considering it is readily available and very green I think it deserves a closer look.