The construction of buildings consumes almost half of all of the worlds physical resources. Materials should be evaluated based on their toxicity, environmental impact, energy footprint, and durability. To accurately assess a material requires considering its entire life cycle costs, from extraction or harvesting to disposal or re-use. Local materials are usually better than ones shipped in from far away, and raw materials are usually better than highly processed ones (one exception is that engineered wood is usually preferable to solid wood).
