Ipe is certainly a better and greener alternative than any composite deck material. Over the years we have been bamboozled by the oil companies to think oil derrived products were green. The above referenced projects, NYC and also Atlantic City boardwalk were supplied by Timber Holdings International who has an incredible history of insuring supply is legal, sustainable, and also started their own reforestation project, Fields to Forest, well before it became cliche' to be green. Additonally you can specify FSC, Forest Stewardship Council, certified wood to insure your source of supply is sustainably harvested. FSC is an internationally recognized certification program which is endorsed by the US Green Building Council for green building projects.

See me blog post at http://www.millennialliving.com/content/why-we-chose-ipe-wood-decking.

Our architect recommended that we try Ipê, a Brazilian wood, for another remodeling project we're currently working on. As you know we've had a lot of problems with our trex deck and so have others.

Here's a summary of Ipê taken from Wikipedia:

"Much of the ipê imported into the United States is used for decking. Starting in the late 1960s, importing companies targeted large boardwalk projects to sell ipê, beginning with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation ("Parks") which maintains the city's boardwalks, including along the beach of Coney Island. The city began using ipê around that time and has since converted the entire boardwalk—over 10 miles (16 km) long—to ipê. The ipê lasted about 25 years, at which time (1994) Parks has been replacing it with new ipê. Given that ipê trees typically grow in densities of only one or two trees per acre, large areas of forest must be searched to fill orders for boardwalks and, to a lesser extent, homeowner decks." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabebui

I guess if Ipê is good enough for NYC boardwalks it will probably do for our deck. There's also a good review at http://www.woodsthebest.com/ipe_decking/ipe_decks.htm.

Maybe others who have Ipe can shed some light on it also. Good luck.