Every time I have a little home improvement project I wonder what the most eco-friendly material I can use is. This usually results to me spending hours walking up and down Lowe’s & Home Depot trying to figure out what all the product labels mean.
But now there is hope! I just came across Ecolect, which is an online library of green, sustainable materials. It was founded in 2005 by two graduates of The Rhode Island School of Design, who were looking for a better way to track down and obtain sustainable materials. Ecolect’s mission is to “help designers find sustainable materials, to provide makers of new materials a space to publicize their innovations and create a vibrant forum for designers committed to sustainability to share their inspiration, occasional frustration, new information and everything in between.”
The goal of Ecolect is to offer:
- An easy-to-use website featuring only materials with sustainable attributes,
- A place for you to contribute user reviews and images of materials you use
- Helpful case studies on successful sustainable design
- An informative blog that discusses how design and ecology affect the world
There are quite a few materials listed tehre and the selection is growing, although the site needs better navigation and an easier way to find products. I am guessing as more sustainable materials are added and more people become interested in green materials Ecolect will boom.
