Greensulate is made of common and generally cheap agricultural by-products of rice, buckwheat and cottonseed. The mix is used as a base for the growth of the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. Fungal cells are added to the mixture after the addition of hydrogen peroxide to inhibit the growth of undesired fungi or plants.
The creators of greensulate, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, met at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as mechanical engineers. They started by testing different cultures of mushrooms and studying their proprieties as insulators. They found that by manipulating the growth environment, they could influence the properties of the material, such as strength, flexibility and temperature tolerance
