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Our Rating System

To make MatLab more practical and applicable to projects, we’ve developed a simple rating system for each material and finish.

The aim of the rating is not to provide a finite score, but to help make sense of how ready a material/finish is to go to market (Availability), and what makes it more or less sustainable in relation to others (Green Rating).

Availability

Low: Emerging technology; may still be in testing and development and not yet readily available.
Medium: Available for small to medium batch production.
High: Readily available for mass production.

Path Green Rating

Standing still: A material that generally isn’t contributing to better sustainable practices may be even harmful or damaging to the environment.
Moving forwards: An improvement on existing materials and technologies typically used.
Going places: An environmentally beneficial material, giving back or replenishing.

We understand that sustainability is a complex, charged and ever-changing topic and that it is difficult – if not impossible – to quantify and “judge” the sustainability of a material.

The Green Rating we’ve included in all our MatLab entries is our starting point to make sense of the huge array of eco materials and substances currently available and in development. The rating should always be interpreted in conjunction with the main write-up: when curating the database we always try to look beyond the surface information, avoid greenwashing and present the facts in a clear and balanced manner.

It is far from a perfect rating, as the suitability (and sustainability) of each material will very much be determined by the unique circumstances and needs of individual projects, products, markets and industries.

It is also worth noting that most materials will not receive a “Going places!” rating, as it is very rare for extracting/creating and then processing a material to avoid damage to the Earth, let alone benefit it.

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