Ecological building means creating and sustaining environmentally healthy construction based on sustainable development principles, economic and ecological effectiveness. The market of building materials has become a pioneer in adapting the idea of sustainable development in the construction sector. As a result of that process “sustainable building materials” have been created. They are defined as materials with superior performance during their whole life-cycle, which meets requirements of sustainable development principles. The following article presents the essence of sustainable building materials. The paper contains an exposition of the whole life-cycle, as well as discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the materials. Besides, the article includes comments on usage of sustainable materials in ecological buildings.