The molasses-paced progress of environmental policy can be enough to crush the optimism of all but the most stoic observers.

The world of design, by comparison, is a source of immediate gratification.

Flip through the pages of Transmaterial 3: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment and you'll encounter one encouraging, fascinating example after another of human inventiveness:

• Carolyn Dry's "self-repairing concrete" features an especially durable cement that is "less pourous, and also prevents corrosion and cracking." With the pollution created by concrete manufacture accounting for 8-10 percent of the world's human-propelled CO2 emissions, self-repairing concrete is positioned as a way to reduce the demand and thus the greenhouse gas load of this common building material.
• "Laser-cut cork" made from the by-product of producing wine bottle stoppers has natural sound- and thermal-insulating properties. It's positioned as an interior design material that can be used for room dividers, walls, or tapestries.
• "Mycoply" board, designed by Edward Browka, apparently involves fungi that have been tailored to grow in flat, bendable planks. It can replace petrochemical foams as a core material in all sorts of everyday products, from boat hulls to auto panels to wind turbine blades. Most intriguingly, and presumably unlike other industrial foams, "mycoply also uses a low-embodied-energy manufacturing process, as the material self-assembles at room temperature and pressure in the dark."

Some of the more than 200 up-and-coming materials detailed in Transmaterial 3 are so cutting edge they defy quick explanation. (There doesn't seem to be anything that page 99's "environmentally tuned wall system" covered with an "intelligent quilt" can't do.) Others are relatively recent darlings of the green-design world (featured on blogs like Inhabitat and re-nest, and CoolHunting), which this guide may elevate into the mainstream. A few of my favorites among them:

• Solar Ivy, a mesh of of flexible, leaf-like photovoltaic panels that can be hung on a building exterior.
• The Bicicleta rug designed by Nani Marquina and Ariadne Miquel, made from used bicycle tire inner tubes.
• The Rainwater H2OG system of hollow building blocks that can store rainwater and graywater.
• Michelle Brand's Flowerfall, a translucent curtain made by cutting the bottoms off used PET drink bottles and linking them together.

Transmaterial 3 is geared to architects and designers. But just about anyone interested at any level in design, engineering, or sustainability -- or who simply loves to know about cool new stuff -- should enjoy browsing this collection of new and emerging materials. Many of them do equal service to aesthetics and the environment.

To get a taste of the content before putting down two twenties on this book, check out transmaterial.net, the online companion to the Transmaterial guides.

Transmaterial 3: 
A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment
Edited by Blaine Brownell
Princeton Architectural Press, $40.00