Wood Wood is considered a sustainable building material because it is derived from a renewable source and has low embodied

d energy. This reflects the minimal non-renewable energy used in the production of timber and its application in construction. It also has sound thermal properties, meaning that timber structures rely less on carbonemitting heating and cooling appliances than buildings constructed of other materials. Wood is also durable, since many products, particularly hardwoods, have a service life of greater than 50 years and often require little energy in maintenance. Wood can also be recycled, which is important in terms of storing carbon through the life of a product and its transformation. Bamboo Over the past five years, the popularity of bamboo has grown at a rapid pace. Suddenly, it's everywhere you look, in everything from floorboards and blinds to furniture and wall cladding. In fact, rapid growth is the very reason bamboo has started to capture the attention of environmentally conscious homeowners and renovators. "Bamboo is up near the top of the list of renewable resources because it's an incredibly fastgrowing grass, "It takes about six years for the bamboo species used in bamboo flooring to be ready to harvest. It would take 25 to 30 years for a comparable tree to be ready for use." Bamboo plants require little fertiliser or pesticides to grow, and they have the ability to sequester carbon at a greater rate than tree species. Plus, at the end of its life cycle, a bamboo product is biodegradable.

Straw bales It is a building technique that uses straw bales (or even hay bales) for walls which can be load-bearing, or used to infill a timber frame. The buildings were intended to be temporary until conventional building materials were delivered. However, they found them to be solid, warm and comfortable, and many continued to live in them in preference to traditional houses. Walls can be rendered with earth or lime to protect them from the elements Three common misconceptions are that they are a fire risk, they can house vermin, and they are not durable. None of the above is true.

 environmental benefits straw bales dont need to be fired like bricks, and dont need cement, both of which use a lot of energy and cause pollution and greenhouse gas emissions dont need environmentally-damaging insulation materials, as straw has a much higher insulation value than brick or concrete; also lower heating bills / reduced CO2 emissions biodegradable natural material, can be locally sourced, and if used in combination with other natural materials like timber, earth, slate and lime, means no toxins or sick building syndrome' other benefits cheap (bales cost around 1 each) easy and quick to build by non-experts good soundproofing they look good (like a cottage but at a fraction of the price) easy to modify and each one is unique no little boxes with straw bales clay Cob is an ancient earth building technique using a combination of clayey subsoil, sand, straw and water. These materials are mixed together either manually, by stomping or dancing on the mix on tarpaulins, or by machinery. The mix is then formed into lumps or cobs and compressed together to form the walls of a building. The mix can also be compressed in moveable wooden forms into wet blocks, which are integrated into the wall. This is known as box cob. The cob building process is rather like building a giant clay pot. environmental benefits: Cob is arguably the most environmentally-friendly building material there is, because: around a third of the worlds land mass contains soil suitable for cob building, which means that the material can usually be found on or near to the building site - the costs and emissions associated with the processing and transport of bulk materials is reduced or eliminated reclaimed materials and products can easily be incorporated into the design cob can be moulded around them typically uses 60% less timber than a stud-frame house the flexibility and fluidity of a cob build allows for curvilinear (yes, it is a word) shapes which enclose space more efficiently, reducing the size of building required for a specific use cob is biodegradable abandon cob walls and they will become incorporated back into nature without a trace very quickly cob has very low embodied energy, is non-toxic, and can be recycled as cob is breathable and flexible, it works well with other natural materials such as timber, stone, straw bales, slate, lime etc, as part of a natural home

 other benefits: your building material is free (although you will need a digger to get it out of the ground and dumped next to your proposed building); however, a cob building will only be cheaper than a conventional building if you do it yourself, as its very labour intensive high thermal mass and good humidity regulation results in stable temperatures and good air quality airtightness in houses is costly to achieve, and has contributed to the huge rise in cases of asthma in children over the last 50 years; a cob house is more eco-friendly than an airtight one keep it small, build with natural, local materials and heat it with passive solar and wood its a fun and creative building method the nature of the material and the sculptural / mud-pie style of building is inclusive, and can bring together people with diverse backgrounds and abilities who can work together as part of a team cob has compressive and tensile strength, so your building will be very solid but its flexible, and so wont crack if there is any movement its easy to repair just patch it with more cob cob buildings are beautiful and unique they are of the earth and have a feel that a bricks and mortar building can never achieve