Review Traditional, state-of-the-art and renewable thermal building insulation materials: An overview Basim Abu-Jdayil a,b,⇑ , Abdel-Hamid Mourad c , Waseem Hittini c , Muzamil Hassan d , Suhaib Hameedi e a Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, PO BOX 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates b Emirates Center for Energy and Environment Research, United Arab Emirates University, 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates c Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, PO BOX 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates d Clean Energy Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, 4-3-11 Takeda, Kofu City 400-8511, Japan e Office of the Chief of Academic Officer, Zayed University, PO BOX 144534, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates highlights  Intensive review on traditional and state-of-the-art thermal insulator is conducted.  The focus was placed on researches utilized of renewable resources and wastes.  High thermal insulation capacity construction composites were reviewed.  Challenges facing traditional and state-of-art insulators were discussed.  Advantages and disadvantages of different thermal insulators were demonstrated. graphical abstract 0 0.025 0.05 0.075 0.1 0.125 0.15 0.175 0.2 0.225 Organic Fibrous Insulators Organic Cellular Insulators Inorganic Fibrous Insulators Inorganic Cellular Insulators Aerogels Vacuum and Gas- filled Panels Natural and Textile Waste Leather and Other Wastes Thermal Conductivity ( ⁄( · )) article info Article history: Received 11 June 2018 Received in revised form 10 April 2019 Accepted 12 April 2019 Keywords: Thermal insulation Energy saving Construction material Polymer Wastes Renewable resources abstract Energy saving has become a strategic goal in the whole world, that will lead to protect the environment and conserve natural resources. The energy consumption in buildings for heating and cooling is considered as one of the major sources of energy consumption in a lot of countries. Therefore, there is an ongoing search for finding the proper alternatives to preserve energy and minimize energy losses. Subsequently, heat insu- lators, part of building materials, are steadily getting their importance as a means of saving energy. Although, a lot of insulation materials are used commercially, this part of building construction still faces different difficulties and challenges such as the cost, thermal and mechanical properties, health problems, etc. Current insulation materials used in construction industry are generally polymer based materials such as polystyrene and polyurethane foam. Although these materials have a high performance in thermal insu- lation, but the environmental impacts in their production processes are significant. Consequently, the researchers find that there is a necessity to develop and come up with insulating materials that possess excellent properties and at the same time, they have less environmental impacts, and are relatively cheap. In this review paper, the researches carried out in the formulation and development of different kinds of thermal insulation in the last decades are presented. The focus was placed on researches utilized of renew- able resources and wastes in thermal insulations development. In addition, the light was shed on the com- posites materials which was developed as a construction material with high thermal insulation capacity. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.04.102 0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: babujdayil@uaeu.ac.ae (B. Abu-Jdayil), ahmourad@uaeu.ac.ae (A.-H. Mourad), waseem.h@uaeu.ac.ae (W. Hittini), g15dga02@yamanashi.ac.jp (M. Hassan), Suhaib.hameedi@zu.ac.ae (S. Hameedi). Construction and Building Materials 214 (2019) 709–735 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat