Eco-friendly materials are becoming an essential trend in modern office design and construction. Traditional materials harm the environment due to pollution and over-exploitation of resources. Recognizing this issue, the construction industry has shifted towards sustainable materials, helping to reduce negative impacts while ensuring the project’s durability. Join Co-IDB to learn more about this topic in the article below!
What are Eco-Friendly Materials?
Eco-friendly materials are products that meet sustainable production standards, maximizing the use of recycled materials or waste from other industries to minimize environmental impact. This is a new trend in the construction industry, which not only helps replace cheap, poor-quality materials but also promotes a green work style and sustainable office.
Why Prioritize Using Green Materials in Office Interiors?
In the face of challenges from climate change and environmental degradation, businesses today need to prioritize sustainability when designing offices. Creating an eco-friendly workspace helps reduce negative impacts on nature while bringing many benefits to employee health.
First, green offices promote a healthier and more productive work environment. Using sustainable materials like recycled products helps limit exposure to toxic chemicals and improves air quality, thereby protecting employee health and increasing productivity.
Second, designing offices with eco-friendly materials demonstrates the company’s commitment to social responsibility. Modern consumers often support companies that are environmentally conscious. This helps build trust and loyalty from customers and partners.
Top 7 Eco-Friendly Green Materials
Recycled Wood Interior Material
When preserved and used correctly, wood is not only easy to apply but also creates a unique architectural highlight for the office. However, to use wood sustainably, managing the supply chain is essential, avoiding over-reliance on new wood to prevent pressure on the natural growth of forests.
One solution is to use **reclaimed wood** from recovered sources, creating eco-friendly wood interior products. This approach helps reduce the pressure of deforestation, contributes to the protection of biodiversity, and increases carbon absorption capacity.
Energy-Saving Office Glass Interior Material
Currently, energy-saving glass is one of the most advanced building materials, manufactured according to German standards – a leading country in the field of green architectural glass. This type of glass is coated with a special inorganic material, which helps control solar energy and reduces the amount of heat transmitted into the office space.
In addition to the inorganic coating, this **energy-saving office glass interior** material is integrated with 08 different layers, optimizing its ability to block radiation and UV rays from sunlight. This helps maintain a stable temperature inside, significantly reducing air conditioning electricity costs, while providing a comfortable and economical working environment.
Solid Stone Material
Solid stone is an easily sourced raw material and is more favored than many types of metal, glass, or plastic. This material is easily reusable, providing high aesthetic value to construction projects.
In interior and exterior design, solid stone is often crafted into products like slabs or stone pieces, but its role extends to many other areas of life. Especially in projects requiring high aesthetics and durability, solid stone is always the top choice, contributing to a luxurious and robust workspace.
>> Read more: Types of office interior stone: comparing natural and artificial stone
Green Cement Material
Green cement is emerging as an eco-friendly material, produced from the abundant waste source of “fly ash.” This is the new generation of cement, offering a sustainable solution for the construction industry, especially in office spaces.
Developed in the US, green cement, or geopolymer cement, possesses many outstanding advantages. With high friction resistance, low shrinkage, and good fire resistance, this material ensures safety and durability for construction projects.
Hempcrete Material
Hempcrete, also known as hemp-lime composite, is an advanced carbon-negative material, produced from hemp fiber and lime, capable of absorbing carbon dioxide more effectively than the gas emitted during its production. With characteristics similar to wood but a faster growth rate and easy regeneration, hemp fiber provides a stable and sustainable supply.
Hempcrete blocks are lightweight, easily flexible in design, and have efficient thermal insulation capabilities. Thanks to its ability to maintain stable temperature, this material helps reduce the energy demand for heating and cooling systems, contributing to building an economical and eco-friendly office environment.
Eco-Friendly Roofing Sheet Material
Eco-friendly roofing material is made from organic cellulose fibers, combined with asphalt and acrylic waterproofing agents through a layered pressing technology. The multi-layer acrylic coating provides toughness, helping to resist rust in coastal conditions.
Additionally, the material has soundproofing, heat resistance, and non-conductivity capabilities, creating a comfortable working space. Roof repair is also easy due to the light weight of the roofing sheets.
Terrazzo Material
Terrazzo is a popular recycled material in floor tile design, known for its diverse colored fragments. The material provides high aesthetics and demonstrates a commitment to sustainability, being made from marble, glass pieces, and cement. Although it originated in ancient Roman times, Terrazzo has undergone many improvements and became popular in the 18th century.
Today, Terrazzo is upgraded with better scratch and crack resistance, providing superior durability for office spaces. The ecological recycling process, including the use of plastic fragments, further highlights Terrazzo’s sustainable value, creating a friendly and highly creative working environment.
Suggestions for More Recyclable Green Materials
Recycled Metal Interior Material
Steel is one of the most common interior materials, capable of maintaining its original properties even after being recycled. The durability and sturdiness of recycled steel are equivalent to new steel, allowing it to be used effectively in construction projects.
Recycling reclaimed steel helps save natural resources and reduces energy consumption and environmental pollution during mining and production. Moreover, the energy required for the recycling process is much less than for manufacturing new steel, thanks to the pre-processed raw material.
Recycled Plastic Interior Material
Plastic material currently poses a serious threat to the environment, causing pollution in many areas due to excessive use coupled with low recycling rates. In light of this situation, many manufacturers and designers have begun efforts to use recycled plastic in their plastic interior products.
Applying industrial-level plastic recycling promises great efficiency, reducing pollution while decreasing reliance on new plastic. This solution will play an important role in building a sustainable and eco-friendly office space.
Recycled Tile Material
Recycled tile is a unique product made from broken tile fragments during the manufacturing process, providing an effective solution for the construction industry. The color of the tile depends on the ratio of raw materials used, with 50% being white, 70% being gray, and 100% being black.
Eco-friendly materials enhance aesthetics and play a crucial role in creating a green and sustainable workspace. The right choice of materials will help minimize negative impacts on the environment while inspiring employees. If you are looking for optimal solutions for your office, contact CO-IDB for detailed consultation.
