Explore the Journey

The San Francisco State University Sustainable Materials Library grew out of SFSU Design students learning how to create sustainable exhibitions and displays of their creative projects. Over the course of four years, over 100 design students created a dozen ambitious exhibitions, and with each exhibition, they conducted extensive research to determine how their ideas could be accomplished solely with sustainable or recycled materials.

Each student also researched and then sourced from the maker or manufacturer a physical sample of a sustainable material that inspired them, resulting in over 100 physical materials samples from all over the world that now comprise the SFSU Sustainable Materials Library. SFSU Design Facilities Director Richard Ortiz sourced a permanent space in SFSU's Humanities building to house this groundbreaking resource, and the SFSU Sustainable Materials Library was born.