A leading Australian sustainability expert has warned that too much emphasis on saving water and carbon neutrality is coming at the expense of other green initiatives, including the arrest of the use of toxic materials. 

While the push to save water was “commendable” it should come as part of a sustainability package that could include legislation to cut the use of toxic building materials, Mark Kelly, director of sustainability at Woods Bagot told Architecture & Design.

The industry was in the dark about the potential toxicity of the nano-materials used in coatings, glazings and paints left the industry, he also warned. The particles could “degrade or change their state”, he said.

“I don’t want to appear alarmist … but we’re not entirely sure, as a society, what the effect of some of these minute particles might be on our health and wellbeing,” he said. 

This comes as America’s leading sustainability expert, William McDonough has cried out over the use of toxic materials. Architects are creating toxic “killing machines”, has said, warning that in over-focusing on carbon neutrality, the profession is ignoring the use of toxic materials such as paints and PVC, he warned. 

“I’m amazed there is so much focus on carbon, yet [architects are still] using toxic materials,” he said. “It’s a nightmare – you’re effectively delivering a killing machine. We have to put as much focus on materials as on energy.”

Buildings can be zero carbon but “fraught with other problems,” McDonough told the UK’s Building Design. “It’s the law of unintended consequences – if the air quality in a school is so bad, because it’s so air tight, that all the kids are falling asleep, that’s not a sustainable option.”