The fact of the matter is, if you’re going to build green buildings, you gotta have green materials. And green building is getting easier because demand is increasing and creating innovative green products to fit all varieties of projects. There are different angles to take with a sustainable project and it’s not all about energy efficiency. You’ll want to look at everything. I like to think in terms of consumption. What are you consuming and how much of it are you consuming? Is the building water efficient? What does it do with waste (such as recycling)? Does waste equal food (C2C)? Did you have to ship it across the world to procure it? What’s the indoor air quality of the building? How does it look and feel? Did you benefit the community by buying the materials, paying the laborers, or building the project?
To make life a little easier, there’s the GreenSpec Directory, which includes more than 2,100 green product listings. It’s a veritable idea bank ($89.90). To give you a taste of what some of the products are, BuildingGreen announced the Top-10 Green Building Products during GreenBuild in November. Here they are. I’ve linked to the BuildingGreen product information and used "(company)" for the corporate website link. BuildingGreen doesn’t receive money from these companies for placing a product in the GreenSpec Directory, so the information is totally objective in that regard.
- Polished Concrete System from RetroPlate (company)
- Underwater Standing Timber Salvage by Triton Logging (company)
- PaperStone Certified Composite Surface Material by Klip Tech Composites, Inc. (company)
- Varia + "100 Percent" Recycled-content Panel Products by 3Form, Inc. (company)
- Recycled-content Interior Molding by Timbron International (company)
- SageGlass Tintable Glazing by Sage Electrochromics (company)
- Water-efficient Showerhead with H20kinetic Technology by Delta (company)
- WeatherTRAK Smart Irrigation Controls by HydroPoint Data Systems, Inc. (company)
- Coolerado Cooler Advanced, Indirect Evaporative Air Conditioner by Coolerado, LLC (company)
- Renewable Energy Credits from Community Energy, Inc. (company)
If you have an experience with any of these products, feel free to drop a comment so all the readers can benefit. Once you go green, you never go back!
Preston,
Thanks for the vote at hugg.com. Great post — I’m glad to see that you mention the issue of waste equaling food and then questioning the issue of transportation (even if it is for the sourcing side of things…). I invite you to check out my new post, “Be Good vs Be Less Bad,” that approaches the matter of logistics in the perfect world of waste and food being one and the same.
Cheers,
Guy
i love PaperStone products so i’m very happy with this post