Bio-Based Materials Working Group
This knowledge group, also known as the Bio-Based Materials Collective (BBMC), is made up of 375 members working together to build and share their expertise.
​Current Working Group Chairs:
Meeting Times:
4:30p-5:00p EST - 3rd Wednesday of Every Month
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How can regionally produced renewable building materials be brought to market, at scale, across the Northeast?
This is the core question that we, as a coalitional network of industry, nonprofit, and government professionals, will grapple with. The United Nations report Building Materials and Climate: Constructing a New Future released on September 12, 2023 affirms that the building sector is responsible for a staggering 37% of global climate emissions. It advises urgent action to “shift to regenerative material practices wherever possible by using ethically-produced low carbon earth and bio-based building materials“. It is time to work together on immediate solutions.
How do we continue to make the collective case for bio-based materials and how they are important to the built environment in our bioregion?
We are all bringing critical and complementary expertise to level-up the promotion of the widespread use of bio-based building materials. These materials are derived from biological resources, such as plants (wood, straw, hemp), animals (wool), and microorganisms (mycelium and bacteria). Bio-based materials can be carbon storing, biodegradable, and can support local regenerative forestry and agricultural practices, which will support a move towards a circular economy and a climate positive future. How can we best communicate, educate, and develop these practices and make them mainstream in our industry?



Resources & Links:
This website contains the annual summit proceedings.
This is a free calculator for estimating embodied carbon emissions and biogeneric carbon storage. The methodology is simple and has comprehensively been reviewed making it a simple way of comparing stored and released carbon of common building products.
The book by Bruce King and Chris Magwood provides practical insights into how buildings can be designed and constructed to not only minimize their environmental impact but also actively contribute to climate mitigation.
The book presents a visually compelling argument for rethinking the material basis of architecture in a time of environmental crisis. Asserting that the most viable means to radically reduce embodied carbon in new buildings is to use plant and earth based materials, the book demonstrates how this approach can catalyze new types of houses that reduce or sequester carbon, engage regenerative life cycles, and create healthier spaces for living.
This book, the first by Material Cultures, assembles a series of short essays and conversations exploring the cultures, systems, and infrastructures that shape the architectural industry and the destructive ecologies it fosters. Through text and visuals, concepts and practice, this book explores how developing a direct relationship with materials can help us find new languages with the potential to supersede those we have inherited.
The Healthy Materials Lab is a design research lab at Parsons School of Design. Dedicated to a world in which people’s and environmental health is placed at the center of all design decisions. Focused on the health of women and children as they are especially vulnerable in the primary space we all occupy- the home. Collaboratively, they address toxics and climate through bringing awareness and charting pathways to design and construct healthy homes.
The Hub, created by the UN Environment Programme and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, consists of five topic pages: Policy challenge, Climate, Life cycle stage, Building use and Material. These pages introduce a myriad of other resources, which can easily be filtered.