I normally post the Top-10 green building products list just as Alex is starting the presentation. And this year, I just totally spaced it out.
BuildingGreen Announces 2009 Top-10 Green Building ProductsPhoenix, AZ, November 12, 2009 — BuildingGreen, LLC, publisher of the GreenSpec Directory and Environmental Building News, today announced the 2009 Top-10 Green Building Products. This eighth annual award, announced at the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild Conference, recognizes the most exciting products drawn from recent additions to the GreenSpec directory and coverage in Environmental Building News.
"Our selections of the Top-10 Green Building Products represent a wide range of product types in many different application areas," noted BuildingGreen founder and executive editor Alex Wilson. This year's list is particularly diverse, ranging from a recycled-content concrete block, to a flywheel energy storage system for data centers, a mobile solar generator for job-site power, and an advanced modular classroom for schools.
Energy-saving products among the Top-10 include a line of mineral wool insulation, an integrated rain-screen / insulation wall cladding for commercial buildings, a heat-pump water heater, and an energy control system for lighting in commercial buildings. A structural matrix system, Silva Cell, provides a support system for urban tree roots, helping trees survive in largely impervious environments and helping to manage stormwater runoff.
One of the nation's most innovative furniture makers, Baltix, is being recognized for new products that incorporate a variety of biobased, FSC-certified, and recycled-content materials. "Many of the Top-10 products this year have multiple environmental attributes," said Wilson.
BuildingGreen's Top-10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn from new additions to the company's GreenSpec product directory. About 200 product listings have been added to the GreenSpec database during the past year. "New products are being introduced all the time, making it a challenge for our staff to keep up," said Wilson. [No kidding — Mark] "We also continue to come across products that have been on the market for years, but were under our radar screen." The GreenSpec database includes more than 2,100 product listings.
A major driver of the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which awards points for the use of certain product types, such as certified wood, or for the energy savings that green products can achieve. "Designers of LEED buildings are looking for green products, and manufacturers are responding," said Wilson. In the online version of GreenSpec, users can find products organized by LEED credits as well as by building category and the CSI MasterFormat structure.
The 2009 Top-10 Green Building Products are listed below. Complete descriptions and contact information are provided on BuildingGreen.com:
- Pozzotive Plus CMUs and Concrete Brick from Kingston Block
- Thermafiber Mineral Wool Insulation Products
- Invelope Integrated Wall Insulation and Rainscreen System
- Baltix Recycled- and Biobased-Content Office Furniture
- Project FROG Modular Green Classroom
- Rheem HP-50 Heat-Pump Water Heater
- Convia Energy-Management Infrastructure
- Pentadyne GTX Flywheel Energy Storage
- Silva Cell Subsurface Tree Protection and Stormwater System
- Mobile Solar Power Generator
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