[Video: 4:25 min.]  Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE: AWI) is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and operates in the business of designing and manufacturing floors, ceilings, and cabinets.  Their current headquarters was built in 1998 and is now part of an elite group of buildings to obtain the LEED Platinum certification for existing buildings.  Feel free to click the above link to see video of Armstrong’s HQ building.  The 3-story building is a glass and steel structure that has workspaces for about 235 employees.  Here are a few things they did to take the green plunge:

• 60% of the building’s waste is recycled;
• Building water use was reduced to 420,000 gallons (from 800,000 gallons);
• Less than 1.5 watts/sf of energy is used, which is 1/2 the national average for comparable properties;
• 75% of the building’s power is supplied by wind energy; and
• Green Seal-certified cleaning products are used throughout the building. 

Now the question is:  if you own your headquarters, have you looked into LEED-EB certification through the USGBC?  We’ve seen Adobe & Owens Corning do it.  Now we have Armstrong.  Who’s next?

Good Links:
++Armstrong LEED-EB Facts & Information Page
++Armstrong Headquarters Receives LEED-EB Platinum Certification [PR]

It looks like there are three new youtube videos up of the Dwell Home by Resolution: 4 Architecture.  The one above is a fly through of the Dwell Home 3D renderings.  If, like me, you find that the videos are a weird way to present something modern + cool, I apologize in advance.  Watch and you’ll know what I’m talking about.  Mute helps.  Via a.mnp. 

I’ve embedded a quick view from the first season of Building Green TV for PBS.  Kevin Contreras is the show’s host and he’s going to navigate viewers through a variety of different green building situations.  In addition to the episode above, you can catch some more at their newly redesigned website.  Coming June 2007. 

[Run time: 5:43 min.]  This is a pretty good video.  If you’re in business and in a position to make decisions about facilities, etc., this is a good idea generator.  In fact, that’s what Jetson Green is all about: generating ideas for application in a new setting.  Here’s Patagonia‘s Mission Statement: "Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis."  This is a good company, working to make a difference in business.  The video covers the following: (1) managing storm-water runoff, (2) landscape and exterior design, (3) water and energy efficiency, (4) construction materials, and (5) green housekeeping, alternative transportation, and recycling.  Note also that Patagonia supports 1% for the Planet. Via.

3/5/2007 – Update: Just noticed a new press release today stating that Patagonia received the LEED Gold level certification, an even more prestigious accomplishment than the Silver.

[Run time: 54:30 min.]  I was reading the Scobleizer and found a fairly substantial video interview with Toby Long, founder of the San Francisco-based, design-build firm CleverHomes.  Cleverhomes is one of those companies swimming upstream in a construction river of anti-progress, anti-innovation, and staunch traditionalism.  I love the Scoble laugh, seriously, it makes the interview pretty good.  Long talks about the interface of technology + construction, or what I’m calling Construction 2.0, with an added dimension of sustainability.  Going forward, the environmental consequences associated with construction need to be figured into a given project’s analysis.  He also mentions structural insulated panels (SIPs), building information modeling (BIM), sustainability, and modern vernacular.  Get past the beginning and give it go…