Sustainable design includes the informed selection of materials and products to reduce product-cycle environmental impacts, improve performance, and optimize occupant health and comfort.

Materials and Construction addresses:

• Efforts to reduce the amount of material used on the project
• Materials selection criteria, considerations, and constraints, such as optimizing health, durability, maintenance, and energy use, and/or reducing the impacts of extraction, manufacturing, and transportation
• How the building enclosure will perform in relationship to air, moisture, water and thermal characteristics
• Consideration given to impacts on the environment over the full life cycle and the results of life cycle assessment if available
• Description of any "green lease" program
• Construction waste reduction plans and any strategies to promote recycling during occupancy

TOPICS (# on 50to50)

• (9) Cavity Walls for Insulating Airspace
• (12) Construction Waste Management
• (13) Cool Roofs
• (14) Deconstruction and Salvage Materials
• (21) Energy-Saving Appliances and Equipment
• (25) High-Efficiency Equipment
• (27) Life Cycle Assessment
• (28) Mass Absorption
• (29) Material Selection and Embodied Energy
• (33) Photovoltaics
• (35) Radiant Heating and Cooling
• (37) Rightsizing Equipment
• (44) Thermal Bridging
• (45) Total Building Commissioning
• (46) Vegetation for Sun Control
• (50) Windows and Openings

Other appropriate topics include:

• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Biomimicry
• Prefabrication
• Green Specifications