We first wrote about TimberSIL from TimberSIL Products in a 2004 article in EBN, touting the company's treated wood as a revolution in the treated wood industry. From an environmental standpoint, a recent enhancement makes the product even better.

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Environmental Building News first introduced waterless urinals to the green building community--back in February 1998 in a product review of the No-Flush Urinal from the Waterless Company. In the 12 years since then, we've profiled as many as a dozen waterless urinals as they've entered the market.

Most waterless urinals, including those from industry pioneers Waterless Company and Falcon Waterfree Technologies, rely on a plastic cartridge that holds a lighter-than-urine vegetable-oil fluid that serves as the sanitary trap (preventing sewer gases from entering the restroom). Though water savings are dramatic, there are at least four problems with this approach:

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The Family School is a "community of learners." Classes are composed of multiple ages and parents are active in the classroom. Each student's day is split between home schooling and coursework led by professional APS staff. Their parents may elect to participate in the classroom with their child. Monthly, parents are asked to attend workshops at the school to provide academic support for their home schooling efforts.

Energy conservation is a priority and the school building committee requested alternative methods of heating and cooling. This is accomplished with the use of a ground source heat pump well field. Using the school as a teaching tool, the landscaped courtyard provides four separate plant biomes indicative of habitats found throughout the state, incorporating the use of on-site storm water quantity and quality control. Recycling and composting areas are also incorporated into the campus.

For more, read the full 12-page case study.

We've promoted the Forest Stewardship Council's wood certification program in the pages of Environmental Building News since FSC was formed back in 1994. We've always looked for companies offering FSC-certified wood products to highlight in EBN and GreenSpec. Over the years, most of those products have been from small companies; larger more industrial timber industry companies have shied away from FSC in favor of the less-rigorous Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification.

While we continue to feel great about small companies embracing FSC, we also find it exciting when larger players enter the FSC world--because these companies will help FSC become more accepted by the mainstream timber and building-products industries.

Thus, we were really pleased recently to learn that Armstrong World Industries, one of the world's largest flooring manufacturers, had entered the FSC world with FSC-certified engineered hardwood flooring products.

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Here at BuildingGreen.com, we recently announced our picks for the Top-10 green building products of 2009. The list is a pretty cool selection of newer products that could come in handy on your 2010 green projects.

But what were your picks?

If you were a subscriber to BuildingGreen.com (which, I feel compelled to add, is a steal at our trial rate of $12.95 per week, or at $199 per year), you had access to our GreenSpec database of over 2,000 of the greenest products out there, thoroughly vetted by our editors, and sorted by CSI and applicability to LEED credits, among other things. We don't take advertising, by the way, so there's no hint of quid pro quo in our listings.

Simple analysis of our website traffic statistics reveals which of those 2,000-plus products you read, researched, and generally clicked on most during 2009.

Ladies and gentlemen...

The People's Choice Top-10 GreenSpec Products of 2009!

10) Navien Tankless Gas Water Heater

Navien offers ultra-efficient tankless condensing water heaters for commercial and residential applications. Microprocessors and sensors...

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Every time I turn around, it seems, I'm finding out about some new, really cool green building product. It's time to start sharing this information. Starting this week, I'll be writing a weekly "product of the week" blog. I'll be skipping around from category to category. Not every product will be brand new, but I'm guessing that most will be unfamiliar to most readers. I welcome suggestions of products I should cover. Contact me by email (alex@buildinggreen.com) or use the comment field at the end of the blog to submit suggestions.

Clean Dry Electric Hand Dryer from TOTO

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If the jobsite for a green building isn't any safer than the jobsite for a conventional building, is something missing from our definition of "green"? That is the question raised by a new study, "Impact of Green Building Design and Construction on Worker Safety and Health," published in October in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.

The authors--two university professors and a safety supervisor with the Hoffman Construction Company in Portland, Oregon, went hunting for any statistical difference in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable and lost time injury and illness data for green and nongreen projects.

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There was a flurry of excitement in the office this morning because of a volley of comments that came into BuildingGreen.com about different products -- fantastic user insights on what works and doesn't in applying Murco joint compound, interactions between the Brac system and Toto toilets, and a cool unexpected benefit to DensArmor. This is just what we at BG want: real feedback on what works, what doesn't, tricky bits to installation - the kind of practical insight that makes a new product safer to try (or lets you know what to avoid).

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It could be worse.

I hope you'll enjoy this fun compilation of common (or not-so-common) LEED problems, with links to LEEDuser credit guidance. On a more serious note, you might also enjoy my recent post, Hard-Won Lessons From a LEED 2009 Early Adopter.

Snafu #10: Being threatened to be hung from the construction crane if the project doesn't earn LEED Gold.

LEEDuser tip: Create a detailed checklist with tasks delegated to individual team members, allowing each member to focus on assigned tasks. The checklist can function as a status tracking document and, finally, the deliverable for LEED Online.

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Editor's Note: Erica Godun, AIA, LEED AP, an associate with FXFOWLE Architects shared the following account with us. I've included links throughout to specific credit guidance (including the official credit language) on our LEEDuser website (available by subscription). By the way, LEED projects can upgrade to 2009 anytime. We've analyzed whether it's worth it here.

LEED 2009 an "interesting" challenge

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.

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