Chemistry has a significant role in the designing, construction, and maintenance of buildings that provide safe, healthy, and sustainable spaces to live and work. The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) BuildingWithChemistry.org website has undergone a content and design revamp to provide architects, designers and builders with information about chemistry and material science’s role in buildings, and how innovations can help enhance health and wellness and make buildings more sustainable.
The new website highlights four major topic areas that bring into focus how the products of chemistry help contribute to building sustainability, resiliency and the health and wellness of building occupants:
- The Building for the Future section highlights key issues that architects, designers and builders may consider as they are selecting building materials. The section includes information about green building codes, standards and rating systems, and certification systems to help show how building projects can utilize regulatory and market-based tools to communicate a buildings’ performance from a sustainability and environmental perspective. It also includes an interactive infographic that illustrates how and where the products of chemistry are typically used throughout a building, from rooftops to wall and floor coverings to plumbing and insulation.
- The goal of sustainable buildings and communities is to positively impact the health and well-being of the people living and working in them. The Health and Wellness section addresses healthy building materials; understanding chemical hazard, exposure and risk; indoor environment quality; worker health and safety; and environmental justice. ACC and its member companies are committed to the use of healthy building materials and providing information about the chemicals used to create high-performance, sustainable building products.
- From enhancing energy efficiency to reducing embodied carbon and improving building resiliency, the products of chemistry contribute to innovative solutions that can help address the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges. The Environmental Innovation section includes information about these challenges, life cycle assessments, water impacts and designing for circularity.
- Investment in resilient design and infrastructure helps support building that can better withstand natural disasters and provide safe and healthy communities. The Society and Resiliency section has information about how chemistry innovations can contribute to increased lifespans of structures and building materials, how building codes can help make buildings safer and more resilient, and resources for building resilient cities.
Chemistry will continue to be essential to the building and construction industry by helping to address the challenges of improving building occupants’ health and well-being, enhancing energy efficiency and making buildings safer and more resilient.