11 green building materials that are way better than concrete

As you can see, there are many eco-friendly alternatives to concrete.

Concrete is a material that quite literally holds our cities together. From homes and apartment buildings to bridges, viaducts, and sidewalks, this ubiquitous gray material's importance to modern urban life is undeniable. But you might have heard that it also has a dirty secret: the production of commercial concrete materials releases tons of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">greenhouse gas</a> carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year, contributing to the calamity that is <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>. But it doesn't have to be that way. We have collated 11 green building materials that offer alternatives to concrete, and a lower environmental impact.

Concrete is a material that quite literally holds our cities together. From homes and apartment buildings to bridges, viaducts, and sidewalks, this ubiquitous gray material's importance to modern urban life is undeniable. But you might have heard that it also has a dirty secret: the production of commercial concrete materials releases tons of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">greenhouse gas</a> carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year, contributing to the calamity that is <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>. But it doesn't have to be that way. We have collated 11 green building materials that offer alternatives to concrete, and a lower environmental impact.

Rather than relying on new research and technology, straw bale building hearkens back to the days when homes were built from natural, locally occurring materials.

As its name might indicate, grasscrete is a method of laying concrete flooring, walkways, sidewalks and driveways in such a manner that there are open patterns allowing grass or other flora to grow.

HempCrete is just what it sounds like — a concrete like material created from the woody inner fibers of the hemp plant.

Bamboo might seem trendy, but it has actually been a locally sourced building material in some regions of the world for millennia.

Instead of mining, extracting and milling new components, researchers are creating concrete that includes ground up recycled plastics and trash.

Plain old wood still retains many advantages over more industrial building materials like concrete or steel.

What's more natural than the dirt under your feet? In fact, walls that have a similar feel to concrete can actually be created with nothing more than dirt tamped down very tightly in wooden forms.

Mycelium is a crazy futuristic building material that's actually totally natural — it comprises the root structure of fungi and mushrooms.

Ferrock is a new material being researched that uses recycled materials including steel dust from the steel industry to create a concrete-like building material that is even stronger than concrete.

AshCrete is a concrete alternative that uses fly ash instead of traditional cement.

Timbercrete is an interesting building material made of sawdust and concrete mixed together.

Concrete is a material that quite literally holds our cities together. From homes and apartment buildings to bridges, viaducts, and sidewalks, this ubiquitous gray material's importance to modern urban life is undeniable. But you might have heard that it also has a dirty secret: the production of commercial concrete materials releases tons of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">greenhouse gas</a> carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year, contributing to the calamity that is <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a>. But it doesn't have to be that way. We have collated 11 green building materials that offer alternatives to concrete, and a lower environmental impact.