Materials selection for green buildings: which tools for engineers and architects?

The selection of building materials plays a key role in the achievement of the ‘Green Buildings’ target and is performed both at an early stage of the design process (when general and strategic choices concerning the building are made) and at the working plan (when materials available on the market are selected). The latter aspect is important exactly as the first one for the actual fulfilment of ‘greenness’ requirements, but architects and engineers in charge of this choice often lack of evaluation tools supporting them in materials’ selection. In the present paper, after a brief discussion about the critical aspects of the definition of ‘green building materials’, the tools presently available for the selection of building materials are overviewed and discussed, with particular attention to the selection of materials at the working plan stage. The applicability of such tools is therefore discussed, with particular reference to the Italian market.