As managing editor for BuildingGreen, I run our efforts, through Environmental Building News, to monitor key news and product developments in the green building industry and bring them to you, our readers, in a thorough and engaging way.

In the last year I've written feature articles for EBN like "Cradle to Cradle Certification: A Peek Inside MBDC's Black Box," "Historic Preservation and Green Building: A Lasting Relationship," and "Antimicrobial Chemicals in Buildings: Hygiene or Harm?"; investigative news articles like "Appraising Green in Vancouver" and "Enertia Double-Envelope Home Still Has Problems"; as well as perspectives like "When Is it Greener to Build?"

My life in green building dates back to a high school reading of "Walden Two," by B.F. Skinner. Never mind the specifics of the book—at the time I found the positive vision for creating vibrant communities to be a revelation. I am fascinated not only by healthy and environmentally sound approaches to construction but also the fostering of healthy communities.

There are plenty of products that simply aren't efficient, low-emitting, or sustainable. but here are some products that have a lot going for them, but also have some serious flaws.

At GreenSpec, we most often like to talk about our 2,200-plus listings of exemplary green products--listings from over 1,600 companies representing thousands of individual products. For ten years we have annually highlighted our Top-10 products of the year, for example.

Today we look at six products we rejected from GreenSpec, and why. There are plenty of products that simply aren't efficient, low-emitting, or otherwise sustainable enough for our standards, but here we've selected some products that have a lot going for them, but also have some serious flaws.

We hope that pointing out flaws can lead to product and industry change. EcoDomo's recycled leather tiles for flooring and walls are made from recycled leather scraps mixed with natural rubber and a binder made from Acacia bark. We originally rejected the tiles in 2006 because of concerns about chromium, a toxic heavy metal used in leather tanning. EcoDomo took our concerns seriously, and now their tiles are chromium-free and listed in GreenSpec.

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LEED Minimum Program Requirement #6, requiring energy and water use reporting, is the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Our free webcast explains it step by step.

Free Webcast: LEED Energy Reporting Made Easy: Fulfilling LEED-2009 MPR #6

Tues. Feb. 28 | 1 p.m. Eastern Time

When the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) were introduced in 2009, it quickly became clear that MPR #6 would be perhaps the most controversial and the most difficult to comply with. Under the requirements of MPR #6, certified LEED-2009 projects are committed to sharing whole-building energy and water usage data.

Many projects have had questions about how to comply (and if they really have to!), and USGBC has taken time to build out its support for this requirement. Now, the support is there, and LEEDuser is here to help answer your questions--and make MPR #6 easy with this free webcast--register now!

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For some fun around the holidays, GreenSpec is holding a virtual "open house"--giving you a sneak peek at some cool new products we're reviewing, and our first impressions. We'd like to hear what you think, so please read our first impressions below and then take the quick survey.

Happy holidays!

Update: Thank you for your feedback. We have closed the survey and are using it to inform our ongoing research agenda.

Back by popular demand, BuildingGreen presents a FREE 1-Hour Webcast on Thursday, December 15, 2011 1 p.m. EST

After presenting this webcast this week to a full house, Alex Wilson is bringing it back next week with an encore performance!

To help professionals make the best design and material choices for their specific projects (and budgets), BuildingGreen recently developed and released the Guide to Insulation Products and Practices.

The report emphasizes that there are no universal right or wrong answers. Instead, it offers guidance to support appropriate material choices -- as well as best practices -- depending on the project and budget.

Register Today!

On December 15th, BuildingGreen is offering a live webcast in which author Alex Wilson discusses the key findings of this report, and offer guidance on insulation choices -- as well as discussion and background. If you are confronted with choosing insulation in an upcoming building project, you won't want to miss this event.

New products constantly appearing

Insulation materials and new formulations or variations of older insulation materials appearing all the time. Today, in addition to standard purchase insulation materials made from mineral wool, cementitious foam, radiant foil, other building material offers such a diverse range of materials -- and material properties.

Alex continually keeps up with developments in key insulation products, and he will discuss the following:

• Fiberglass, cellulose, cotton, and other fiber-based materials
• Polyisocyanurate, polystyrene, mineral wool, and other boardstock materials
• Closed-cell and open-cell spray polyurethane, cementitious foam, and other spray-in-place products
• Radiant barriers, gas-filled panels, vacuum insulation, and other products

Complex environmental issues

From embodied energy to blowing agents to recycled content, indoor air quality, and air barrier characteristics and more, there is a lot to keep up with in terms of environmental characteristics of insulation. Alex will cover all these issues and he'll take your questions

Continuing Education

Attendees of this free webcast will receive:

• One AIA HSW/SD CEU
• One LEED CE hour
• A CE certificate good for other reporting

Register Today!

About the presenter

Alex Wilson is the founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. in Brattleboro, Vermont, and executive editor of Environmental Building News (EBN) and the GreenSpec Directory of green building products. Prior to launching his own company, now BuildingGreen, in 1985, Alex served for five years as executive director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Alex is the author or coauthor of Your Green Home (New Society, 2006) the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings (ACEEE, first edition, 1990, 9th edition 2007) and Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate (John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Alex served on the national board of the U.S. Green Building Council from 2000 through 2005 and received the organization's 2008 Leadership Award for Education. In 2010, he received the second annual Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing.

Do you really know the difference between FSC and SFI? Has the federal government ended all our greenwashing woes? Find out below!

We invite you to test your knowledge with this quiz that we came up with covering key questions around when our building products are green, and when they're being greenwashed.

Stumped? We work continually to clarify questions like this with our GreenSpec product and category guidance, and through our special report on green product certifications.

Read more...

A victim of a hepatitis E infection she picked up unknowingly in Brazil, Genevive Bjorn's liver rebelled against her one night in Hawaii. Her body almost shut down on her, but with help from the hospital, a battery of tests, her watchful boyfriend at her side, and a diet of nothing but rice porridge, she squeaked through.

This is what happened next, as she wrote last year in The New York Times: "My liver began barking at smells and substances I'd barely noticed before. I considered myself an earthy minimalist, but my house turned out to be a chemical minefield. I developed a doglike olfactory sense that guided me as I sniffed, recoiled and pointed out to Adam what had to go. He tossed out most of our bathroom and kitchen products, along with everything preserved or petroleum-based."

Her nose for the faintest of smells makes her a "super sniffer," one gifted with this sense. As Bjorn recounted recently on her blog, The Daily Smell, while sniffing around a friend's new home at the friend's request, she rapidly sniffed out the previous location of the kitty litter box which had been moved two weeks prior, rancid vegetable oil in the kitchen, possibly unsafe coatings and on kids' furniture and toys, and even the spot in the living room where the previous owner had died months before.

You don't need to be super sniffer, though, to pick up on scents in buildings that tell us some interesting things. Here are some that I've noticed.

Read more...

BuildingGreen presents a FREE 1-Hour Webcast on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 2 p.m. EST

To help professionals make the best design and material choices for their specific projects (and budgets), BuildingGreen recently developed and released the Guide to Insulation Products and Practices.

The report emphasizes that there are no universal right or wrong answers. Instead, it offers guidance to support appropriate material choices -- as well as best practices -- depending on the project and budget.

Register Today!

On December 7th, BuildingGreen is offering a live webcast in which author Alex Wilson discusses the key findings of this report, and offer guidance on insulation choices -- as well as discussion and background. If you are confronted with choosing insulation in an upcoming building project, you won't want to miss this event.

New products constantly appearing

Insulation materials and new formulations or variations of older insulation materials appearing all the time. Today, in addition to standard purchase insulation materials made from mineral wool, cementitious foam, radiant foil, other building material offers such a diverse range of materials -- and material properties.

Alex continually keeps up with developments in key insulation products, and he will discuss the following:

• Fiberglass, cellulose, cotton, and other fiber-based materials
• Polyisocyanurate, polystyrene, mineral wool, and other boardstock materials
• Closed-cell and open-cell spray polyurethane, cementitious foam, and other spray-in-place products
• Radiant barriers, gas-filled panels, vacuum insulation, and other products

Complex environmental issues

From embodied energy to blowing agents to recycled content, indoor air quality, and air barrier characteristics and more, there is a lot to keep up with in terms of environmental characteristics of insulation. Alex will cover all these issues and he'll take your questions

Continuing Education

Attendees of this free webcast will receive:

• One AIA HSW/SD CEU
• One LEED CE hour
• A CE certificate good for other reporting

Register Today!

About the presenter

Alex Wilson is the founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. in Brattleboro, Vermont, and executive editor of Environmental Building News (EBN) and the GreenSpec Directory of green building products. Prior to launching his own company, now BuildingGreen, in 1985, Alex served for five years as executive director of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Alex is the author or coauthor of Your Green Home (New Society, 2006) the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings (ACEEE, first edition, 1990, 9th edition 2007) and Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate (John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Alex served on the national board of the U.S. Green Building Council from 2000 through 2005 and received the organization's 2008 Leadership Award for Education. In 2010, he received the second annual Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing.

New ways to make and save energy, from university research

An environmentalist dies and reports to the pearly gates, but there is a mix-up and she is sent to the gates of hell. Once in hell, she is horrified by the air and water pollution, global warming, and habitat destruction. But she gets to work and soon the hellscape is covered with grass and plants, the food is organic, the air is clean, and the people are happy.

One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?" Satan tells God about the improvements brought by the environmentalist and God says, "What? You've got an environmentalist? That's a mistake--send her up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are you going to get a lawyer?"

It takes all types to deal with our environmental problems--and today I'd like to focus on the researchers who are toiling away in laboratories, trying to eke out greater efficiencies from technologies that most of us never give any thought to. Here are some recent highlights from the pages of Environmental Building News. (Want to keep up with more stories like this? Subscribe to EBN!)

Windows that allow in light but not heat

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories have developed a technology that prevents solar heat gain without blocking visible light, allowing for "smart windows" that can respond to outdoor conditions without a visible change in the window. At present, electrochromic window coatings can block near-infrared radiation, which causes heat gain, but only by darkening the window at the same time; this can lead to increased use of indoor lighting and offset the energy benefits of smart windows.

The new technology uses a transparent "nanocrystal" coating of indium tin oxide--a semiconductor used in flat-screen TV displays. The coating could allow for the creation of smart windows programmed to work in tandem with ventilation and lighting systems by selectively allowing heat to pass and always allowing light to pass--thereby reducing heating, cooling, and lighting loads.

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Spray foam is only one of a number of building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life).

[Editor's note: After asking him to pen his series of 10 Riversong's Random Reflections on our blog earlier this year, we asked Vermont builder Robert Riversong back to discuss fire safety issues in residential construction. Riversong is a volunteer firefighter. Enjoy! – Tristan Roberts]

A Builder/Firefighter's Thoughts on Fire Issues in Residential Construction and Remodeling

There has been some media and regulatory attention given lately to auto-ignition of spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation during the application process. [Editor's note: see Massachusetts Fires Tied to Spray Foam Incite Debate.]  While the SPF industry has, understandably, reacted defensively to this development, there are legitimate reasons for caution and concern.

The SPF industry has taken an industrial, chemical process that works quite well in the controlled setting of a highly-regulated factory with in-house and outside safety specialists monitoring the process--and set it loose in the field in an uncontrolled environment, with far less consistent applicator training and an impossibly difficult arena for safety monitoring. A significant increase in application errors is to be expected, particularly when thickness limits are ignored in order to complete a job or to meet IECC R-value standards.

However SPF is only one of a number of relatively "modern" building products and methods which increase the risk of catastrophic fire loss (and potential loss of life). As with almost all technological advances, there are unintended consequences that are not either recognized or considered in the rush toward market acceptance.

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