In a transition to an ecological economy, awareness about materials is perhaps more revolutionary than energy awareness because of how materials call attention to the use of energy and the purpose of economic activities. We seem to be, as discussed more thoroughly in Designing the Green Economy, in a historical transition from quantity to quality requiring a fundamental redefinition of wealth. This puts particular emphasis on questions of use and purpose, and such an emphasis is the essence of the ecological service economy. For our previous stage of economic development, which was focused on accumulation of money and matter, the linear river economy was somewhat appropriate. It certainly churned out a lot of stuff and continually revolutionized technology. Today, however, system limits make open-ended growth counterproductive; quantitative growth not only increasingly erodes quality but paradoxically begins to deepen, not alleviate, material scarcity. Whats more, with industrialization having moved into the realm of culture, simply tapping the main productive potentials of our day depends upon a more explicit concern with human psychological, cultural and community development. Our survival depends on seeing materials as simply means to more qualitative ends, thus allowing their radical conservation and recycling. Thus a primary concern of this thesis has been to understand the role of building materials in an industry geared to service and regeneration.