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img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//CornerGuard_MedRes.jpg / a href=http://www.inprocorp.comInPro Corporation/a was founded in 1979 as Institutional Products Corporation (IPC). Originally a distributor of high-impact door and wall-protection products for the healthcare industry, IPC began its own manufacturing in 1986, changed its name to InPro Corporation in 1995 (cleverly retaining IPC), and today is one of the leading producers of a wide range of wall and corner-protection components, plastic surfacing products, handrails, and signage used in commercial and institutional buildings. br / br /InPros products, like others in this industry, have been dominated by vinyl (polyvinyl chloride, PVC) since the 1970s. The company gained the attention of BuildingGreen in 2003 when it introduced a non-PVC resin, EnviroGT, as a greener alternative to their own (and other) PVC products. We named the EnviroGT product line one of our 2003 Top-10 Green Building Products. br / br /What has been really impressive about InPro since then is how thorough Matt Bennett (now vice president for product development) has been in pursuing greener products. For the past ten years, Bennett has been active with the U.S. Green Building Council, closely following green building trends, attending conferences, and asking lots and lots of questions. I most recently saw him at a fairly high-level retreat on low-impact building materials in San Francisco: the a href=http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/symposium/Build Well Symposium/a. Through those efforts, Bennett and InPro have been able to be green leaders in their particular segment of the building products industry. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//PPG_PurePerformance.jpg / pThe last few weeks Ive written about common myths of green building: that a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/3/4/Does-Green-Building-Have-to-Cost-Moreit has to cost more to build green/a, that a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/3/10/Green-Building-Myth-Its-All-About-Materialsgreen building is mostly about materials/a, and that a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/3/16/Green-Building-Myth-3-Green-Products-Dont-Work-as-Well-as-Standard-Productsgreen products dont work as well as conventional products/a. This week Ill cover the myth that green building products are hard to find./p pWhen I first started writing about green building products twenty years ago (a couple years before launching a href=https://www.buildinggreen.com/ecommerce/ebn.cfmEnvironmental Building News/a), they were few and far between. There was only one company I knew about that made paints, adhesives, and sealers that were formulated specifically to minimize harmful emissions: AFM (a href=http://www.afmsafecoat.com/American Formulating and Manufacturing/a) in California. There wasnt yet a certification for wood products produced in an environmentally responsible manner. Decking made from recycled plastic wasnt on the market yet. And compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were only available only from specialty distributors./p pTimes have certainly changed. Not only have those start-up companies that offered green products grown and broadened their distribution, but mainstream companies have dramatically greened their product lines. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//after2.gif / If you thought making substantive change by a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2009/8/28/AIA-Brings-2030-Targets-Down-to-Earth/?2030/a was a challenge, how about by 2014? A new initiative launched last week and getting spread around the Internet today, a href=http://www.fouryearsgo.org/fouryears.go/a says There is still time to act, but no time to waste. Started by a href=http://www.pachamama.org/Pachamama Alliance/a and a href=http://www.wk.com/Wieden+Kennedy/a--the ad agency behind Nikes just do it (theyre donating their services to do a major communications campaign for this)--its about waking people up to urgency we face in these times and helping each member group meet its most ambitious goals toward a just, thriving, and sustainable world. The video asks--could we spend the next four years growing our cities? and shows green roofs on everything; it asks, in four years, could Manhattan look like this? and shows the street filled with bikes. Its nice to set aside the usual reality concerns and just watch the video and dream. Given how many solutions we really do already have at our fingertips, and how much substantive change really does depend on mustering collective will from a wider spectrum of society, maybe a kick in the pants from left field along with a major ad campaign can help. Cmon, stop and dream for a minute. Pass it on. Ok, coffee break is over. Time to get back to hammering out the hard, pragmatic details of greening our buildings and neighborhoods step by messy step.

a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/CI-2009/RPc1img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 350px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//US Regional Priority Map.jpg //a What are the environmental priorities in your region? How can you find out? br / br /As you may know, USGBC responded to the longstanding call for regionalization of LEED by establishing Regional Priority Credit 1 (RPc1) in its LEED 2009 family of rating systems (NC, CS, CI, Schools, EBOM). br / br /Regional priority credits are identified by USGBC Regional Councils for each zipcode within their region, with input from USGBC Chapters. These bonus points are granted for meeting requirements that have been designated as particularly important for your projects specific geographical area. br / h3Not new credits /h3The RP points are for normal LEED credits, not new ones written for your region. To me, this is both good and bad. I would have liked to see more regional innovation around LEED, with credits written for specific regions going after issues near and dear to those regions. That could get pretty unwieldy, though, so the solution of offering bonus points for existing credits makes a certain amount of sense. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px max-width: 250px; padding: 10px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//venetian-ext-night1.jpg / Years ago a friend and I borrowed my mothers minivan, left our small college, and drove west in search of the Great American Wilderness. For months we steered clear of cities in favor of National Parks and Forests, but as we passed through the Sierras we couldnt help but notice how close Death Valley is to that other American extreme: Las Vegas. We drove out of Death Valley around midnight, and soon the artificial sun of Sin City was glowing on the eastern horizon. Stepping out onto the Strip, all I could see was the waste: the blazing lights, the miles upon miles of climate-controlled real estate, the networks of fountains spewing billions of gallons of water into the dry desert air. With all the maturity and nuanced perspective of my 20 years, I thought: iWere all going to die, and this is what will kill us./i I left Vegas less than 12 hours later and Ive never been back, but I think of it often, especially when Im feeling less hopeful that we will ever un-supersize the American lifestyle, because its so clear from examples like Las Vegas that excess#8212;waste#8212;still sells. But a href=http://www.lvrj.com/business/sands-unveils-green-plan-88260762.html target=_blanksomething I saw/a this week might have me looking for a new scapegoat: the a href=http://www.lasvegassands.com/ target=_blankLas Vegas Sands Corp./a (of the Venetian, Palazzo, and Sands Expo complex) has a a href=http://www.lasvegassands.com/LasVegasSands/LVS_Eco_360/Mission_Statement.aspx target=_blankplan/a to turn the three-casino complex into the worlds greenest building#8212;all 17.9 million square feet of it. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//CA350_Vari_Hand2_kombi_klein_Internet.jpg / Our next feature article for a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/news/index.cfmemEnvironmental Building News/em/a is on the Passive House standard for ultra-low-energy buildings--a standard that originated about 20 years ago in Germany. Excitement about Passive House in North America is resulting in some really cool products being introduced from Europe. One of those is the Zehnder line of heat-recovery ventilators (HRVs) and associated components. br / br /I had a chance to spend some time with Barry Stephens, the national sales and marketing manager for Zehnder America at last weeks a href=http://www.nesea.org/buildingenergy/Building Energy Conference/a, sponsored by the a href=http://www.nesea.org/Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)/a. Zehnder is a Swiss company that specializes in hydronic heat distribution, heated towel racks, ground-source heat recovery, and advanced heat-recovery ventilation systems. Runtal, a more familiar brand in North America, is a Zehnder company. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//peeingsitting1.JPG / If youve been following this blog for a while, you know that I wrote about urine-separating toilets a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2009/8/28/Urine-Separation-The-Next-Wave-of-Ecological-Wastewater-Treatment/last year/a. Youll also know that Im rather enamored of the image at right. So you can imagine how gleeful I was when I discovered I had another reason to use it! It turns out a href=http://greenerbuildings.com/news/2010/03/12/no-mix-toilets-get-rave-reviews-europeresearchers in Europe have found/a that people are not at all grossed out by the concept of urine-separating toilets. In fact, they like them! 75%-85% of people surveyed found the toilets as easy to use and as clean and hygienic as conventional toilets. And 80% of those surveyed supported the idea of using urine as fertilizer.

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//peteregreen.jpg / pEver since the premier of USGBCs two-day REGREEN workshop in Phoenix, AZ at Greenbuild last November, Annette, Rob, and I have been gearing up for a slew of green remodeling workshops across the country -- the REGREEN Roadshow. The REGREEN workshops are a lot of fun to teach (and take) for two reasons: one, the blend of builder/remodeler with interior design perspectives is completely refreshing; and two, the substantial and substantive group work woven into the workshop makes for an energetic and invigorating approach./p pNow you might be saying to yourself: What? Interior designers and hard-core building science-builder types making sweet music together? You would be surprised at how well these perspectives can inform each other. Here is just one example:/p pYour clients TELL you they want new replacement windows. But what they actually want is to keep the way their windows currently look, not spend too much, and get real performance improvements (in terms of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and daylighting -- without overheating during the summer). Whew. So you sit down with an interior designer, and all of the sudden you need to compare about a dozen options -- sash replacements, window films, cellular shades, awnings, shutters -- all with real (but different) advantages. What started as a rather simple choice ends up to be quite a puzzle, based on a weaving of sometimes competing aspects: energy efficiency, lighting, views, privacy, cost, comfort, even noise. Its just as much about interior design as it is hard-core remodeling./p [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//Drake_II_2-piece_1.28gpf_SaniGloss_cst454_zoom.jpg / The last couple weeks Ive written about two of the common myths of green building: a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/3/4/Does-Green-Building-Have-to-Cost-Morethat it has to cost more to build green/a and that a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2010/3/10/Green-Building-Myth-Its-All-About-Materialsgreen building is mostly about materials/a. This week Ill cover another myth: that green building products dont perform as well as conventional products. br / br /A lot of people still point to products like early water-saving toilets, compact-fluorescent lamps, and recycled-plastic-lumber decking as evidence that new-fangled green products dont work very well. Clearly, there were some poorly performing products out there as manufacturers scrambled to respond to consumer demand and new regulations. But, for the most part, weve climbed up that learning curve, and current-generation products work very well. br / br /Lets take a look at the history of a few of these product categories. [More]

pThe following is a video that we recorded at our booth at the 2009 Greenbuild conference, when we transformed BuildingGreens booth into the Ask LEEDuser experience, including talks on specific credits from LEEDusers guest experts--the top LEED minds on specific LEED credits. /p pHere, Joshua Radoff of a href=http://www.yrgsustainability.comYRG sustainability/a reviews some of the key considerations behind achieving SSc8: Light Pollution Reduction in the 2009 a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-2009/SSc8NC/a, a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/CS-2009/SSc8CS/a, and a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/Schools-2009/SSc8Schools/a rating systems. (Links go to further guidance on the a href=http://www.leeduser.comLEEDuser site/a.) Josh covers what you have to do in terms of interior AND exterior lighting, and what you need from your designer. A highly recommended two minutes and 21 seconds! a href=http://www.leeduser.com/strategy/video-achieving-ssc8-light-pollution-reductionimg style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 500px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//Radoff SSc8 video.jpg //a

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//hsf_solid.jpg / Go figure Id finish a feature article (a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2010/3/1/Chemistry-for-Designers-Understanding-Hazards-in-Building-Products/?Chemistry for Designers: Understanding Hazards in Building Products/a) saying theres no certification in the USA for products that are hazard-free and immediately a label gets launched. Thats ok, I have no complaints with things moving fast in this field. I havent dug into the details enough to vouch for this system yet – but the Hazardous Substance Free product label (a href=http://www.hsf.us/HSF Mark/a), launched March 1, looks pretty good at first glance, though only for powered products (appliances, heating cooling equipment, lighting, and home and office electronics). Products with the HSF Mark meet hazard restrictions set by a href=http://www.rohs.gov.uk/ROHS/a, a href=http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htmWEEE/a, or a href=http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htmREACH/a (three European regulations addressing respectively, hazards in electronics, electronic waste, and a more general overarching program on chemical hazards in products). This means these products may still include listed hazards at the reduced levels acceptable in the regulation, or hazards we dont know about. But this is about as good as it gets right now, until people start proactively looking at hazardous properties instead of specific listed chemicals (the a href=http://www.cleanproduction.org/Greenscreen.phpGreenScreen/a and a href=www.bastaonline.seBASTA/a systems mentioned in the feature article do this, but its rare). To use the HSF Mark, Manufacturers (and their supply chain) have to engage in a hazardous substance process management (a href=http://www.kw2.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bv_com/Group/Home/bv_com_serviceSheetDetails?serviceSheetId=13531serviceSheetName=Hazardous+Substance+Process+Management+%28HSPM%29HSPM/a) system, which includes a 3rd party assessment and annual surveillance – so rather than just testing the specific product, theyre looking at the whole process, which I think is better in the long run. The plan is to have an online database of these products – supposedly there are over 2000 certified HSPM companies now with products that qualify now - but well have to wait and see if this turns out to be truly useful to purchasers in the US.

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//Kirei_bar_0.jpg / pa href=http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/does-green-building-have-cost-moreLast week/a I wrote about one of the common myths of green building: that it has to cost more to build green. This week, Ill tackle another myth: that green building is mostly about materials./p pThis isnt quite as significant a misconception as it was a few years ago, but there are still a lot of people who think green building is largely about using products that are made from recycled waste materials, or agricultural products, or rapidly renewable products like bamboo. It is still common to hear about how green a building is because of the recycled-glass tiles in the entrance foyer or the carpet thats made from recycled soda bottles./p pUsing recycled-content and bio-based materials is a great idea, but materials are only one--relatively small--aspect of green design. Usually more important are the following:/p [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//Knoll_Reff_7101_MedRes.jpg / pWeve been writing about the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/news/index.cfmemEnvironmental Building News/em/a since the organization was created in 1993. Weve watched as FSC pushed the mainstream forest products industry toward more responsible forestry practices even as that industry fought to prevent or slow the adoption of the U.S. Green Building Councils LEED Rating system because it awarded points for use of FSC-certified wood exclusively. And weve continued to recognize FSC-certified wood products through emEBN/em product reviews and listings in our a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/menus/index.cfmemGreenSpec Directory/em/a. br / br /One of my frustrations with FSC-certified products has long been that they almost always involve an upcharge over standard non-FSC-certified products. Its great that Marvin Windows or Armstrong Flooring offers FSC-certified products, but because the FSC wood is an option--a fairly expensive option--relatively little ends up getting specified. [More]

pWeve just filmed Episode #1 of our new LEED update show! Weve got:/pulliA Tip of the Day (on a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-2009/SSc8LEED BDC SSc8/a),/liliA QA on a href=http://www.leeduser.com/strategy/minimum-program-requirementsLEEDs Minimum Program Requirements/a featuring a a href=http://www.leeduser.com/topic/site-boundarydiscussion on LEED site boundaries/a by Phoebe Kincaid and Shannon Gray,/lililiand I cant say what the last item is, but lets just say that it involves a href=http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-2009/WEc3WEc3/a and a single guy walking into a LEED-certified bar and ordering a drink./li/ulpCheck it out, and let us know what you think in the comments below. Questions or comments on the show? Email a href=mailto:tristan@LEEDuser.comtristan@LEEDuser.com/a. /ppnbsp;/ppobject width=640 height=385param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/BY1qXAktLaMamp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp; /param name=allowFullScreen value=true /param name=allowscriptaccess value=always /embed type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=530 height=318 src=http://www.youtube.com/v/BY1qXAktLaMamp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp; allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true/embed/object/p

table style=float: right; max-width: 150pxtrtdimg style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 300px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//energyuse1.jpg /div align=rightiEven if a small house has lower levels of insulation than a larger house, its likely to cost less to heat. 1. R-19 walls, R-30 ceilings, double-low-e (U=0.36) vinyl windows, R-4.4 doors, infiltration of .50 ACH, and R-6 ducts in attic; 2. R-13 walls, R-19 attic, insulated glass vinyl windows, R-2.1 doors, infiltration of .50 ACH, and uninsulated ducts; 3. Natural gas at $0.50 per therm; 4. Electricity at $0.10 per kWh. /i/div/td/tr/tablepHaving written about green building for more than twenty years now, Ive encountered lots of misperceptions. One of those is that green building always has to cost a lot more than conventional building. There are plenty of examples where it does cost more (sometimes significantly more), but it doesnt have to, and green choices can even reduce costs in some cases. Let me explain. [More]

img style=float: right; margin: 10px; max-width: 250px src=http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/images//LEED certified 3.jpg / iEditors Note: Erica Godun, AIA, LEED AP, an associate with a href=http://www.fxfowle.com target=blankFXFOWLE Architects/a shared the following account with us. Ive included links throughout to specific credit guidance (including the official credit language) on our a href=http://www.LEEDuser.comLEEDuser website/a (available by subscription). By the way, LEED projects can upgrade to 2009 anytime. Weve analyzed whether its worth it a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2009/9/25/Upgrade-to-LEED-2009/here/a./i h2LEED 2009 an interesting challenge/h2 We thought that being one of the first projects to use the new LEED 2009 Interior Design and Construction rating system would be an exciting challenge. It is turning out to be more interesting than exciting as in the ancient Chinese proverb. We started a 25,000-square-foot interior renovation project in summer 2008. Our client was committed to building a sustainable project and wanted LEED certification. The objective was to get as high a rating as possible without spending money on sustainable strategies just to earn additional credits without real project benefits. As we advanced the design, the LEED analysis showed us being comfortably in the upper end of LEED Gold certification. [More]

Interesting how its at once forward-looking and backward. div align=centerobject width=425 height=344param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/6ophEYd4A-Qhl=en_USfs=1/paramparam name=allowFullScreen value=true/paramparam name=allowscriptaccess value=always/paramembed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/6ophEYd4A-Qhl=en_USfs=1 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true width=425 height=344/embed/object/divbr / div align=righta href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ophEYd4A-Qilink to video/i/a/divbr /

Heres a tool that tries to connect the best available science directly to the international climate change negotiations and commitments, and the politicians are using it! Perhaps that, in itself, is progress. object type=application/x-shockwave-flash data=http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4b0afdf054484c54/4b1d17308016cb51/4b0bd9e53e5935f6/75f3524c id=W4b0afdf054484c544b1d17308016cb51 width=530 height=470param name=movie value=http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4b0afdf054484c54/4b1d17308016cb51/4b0bd9e53e5935f6/75f3524c /param name=wmode value=transparent /param name=allowNetworking value=all /param name=allowScriptAccess value=always /param name=allowFullScreen value=true //object quot;How Does It Work? In the run-up to COP-15, we are scanning UNFCCC submissions and news sources from around the world to collect a list of what we call current proposals mdash; possible scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions by UNFCCC parties. We share our compilation and use the C-ROADS-CP climate simulation to calculate the expected long-term impacts (in terms of GHG concentration, temperature increase, and sea level rise) if those proposals were to be fully implemented.quot; For more info, see the a href=http://climateinteractive.org/scoreboardClimate Interactive website/a.

In this months a href=http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2009/12/1/Will-I-Get-Sued-Managing-Risk-in-Green-Building/feature article/a, I talk about the risks of green building. I note that one of the problems with model contracts, such as those from AIA, is that they dont adequately address issues of green building technology, performance, or certification. Of course, a few days after that article goes live, AIA releases a model scope of services defining an architects role in LEED certification. That document is available (for $6) a href=http://www.constructionbook.com/aia-b214-2007-standard-form-of-architect8217s-services-leed-certification-b214-2007/aia-b-series-document/here/a.