The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) is pleased to support Materials Matter: Reimagining Building Materials for Health and Sustainability, a new research project led by UCL’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering (IEDE). The project explores how choices around building materials, from natural products to recycled products and innovative composites, can deliver wide-ranging environmental, health, social and economic benefits across the built environment.
Materials Matter combines expert interviews with systems thinking to help architects, engineers and material suppliers assess sustainable and healthy materials in a more holistic way. The project brings together early-career professionals and senior industry leaders to build a shared understanding of the barriers, from awareness and behaviour to competing priorities, that stand in the way of wider adoption of healthier, low-carbon materials.
The project is led by Simon Vakeva-Baird, Research Fellow in Engagement and Evaluation at UCL, with co-leads Gemma Moore, Valentina Marincioni, Anna Mavrogianni, Irene Pluchinotta and Marcella Ucci, who also sits on ASBP’s Board.
ASBP is joined in the project by Firstplanit, an ASBP member, and the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG). Both UCL and UKIEG are long-standing collaborators of ASBP, and their involvement reflects relationships built over many years of shared work on healthier, more sustainable buildings.
Richard Broad, Chief Executive of ASBP, said:
“Materials Matter speaks directly to the questions our members ask us every day: how do you weigh health, sustainability and practicality when specifying building materials. We’re pleased to support UCL, Firstplanit and UKIEG on this work, and we’re looking forward to bringing the sector together to discuss the findings when we host the project’s closing event in 2027.”
ASBP will host a closing event in 2027, bringing together researchers, industry partners and the wider built environment community to share the project’s findings and discuss what they mean for practice and policy.
Find out more at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/research-projects/2026/feb/materials-matter-reimagining-building-materials-health-and-sustainability.