Radiant-heat control products can reduce heat transfer in attics and in certain mechanical system applications. To be effective, however, they must produce a low-emittance surface, like the low-emissivity coatings on high-performance windows, and the best way to get that low emittance is with a low-emissivity foil product. Foils come in rolls adhered to plastic films for strength or attached to the underside of roof deckings. The best of them have emissivities as low as 0.03 when they are new—as they get dirty and scuffed their performance declines.

There are no paint-on or spray-on coatings that perform as well as the foil products, but for applications where it just isn’t feasible to roll out a shiny film, a coating may be the best option. ASTM Standard C 1321 defines an “interior radiation control coating system” (IRCCS) based on a measured thermal emittance no higher than 0.25. In 2006 the Reflective Insulation Manufacturers Association (RIMA), which represents suppliers of both foil and coating products, hired insulation specialist David Yarbrough, Ph.D., P.E., of R&D Services to determine the emittance of a range of coatings on the market. Based on independent testing of 17 products from ten manufacturers, Yarbrough found four that met the ASTM definition of an IRCCS. Three of these four are solvent-based, making them high in VOC emissions. LO/MIT-II (the name is a contraction of “low emittance”) is the exception, with a VOC level of 170 grams per liter.

Standard decorative ceiling panels are made using plaster in a relatively labor-intensive process, according to Brooks Williams, a marketing manager at Chicago Metallic. Monarch GE is made on an automated line in “a simpler, cleaner, more energy-efficient process,” said Williams, offering environmental and cost benefits. The bulk of the panels are tiny, lightweight, durable glass spheres manufactured by Poraver from 100% post-consumer recycled glass. (Although saved from the landfill, the beads are not without environmental costs—they are manufactured at 1,650°F, or 900°C, using significant energy.) Chicago Metallic takes back used panels and sells them to other manufacturers as crushed material to be used as a mastic.

Chicago Metallic offers Monarch GE in coffer, open-coffer, and flat-panel designs, and says that panels won’t warp, sag, or grow mold. The panels fit into a standard two-foot-square (0.6-m2) suspended grid; non-decorative filler panels are used for edges. Unpainted, they reflect 83% of the light that falls on them, helping spread daylight through a room, and they hold paint well without trapping dirt. For rooms with sound-deadening needs, Monarch GE includes a drop-in acoustic coffer that keeps the decorative profile of the Monarch GE while offering greater sound absorption.

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Vol. 15, No. 8). To replace them, the companies took what had been the third ingredient, copper, multiplied its concentration by about four, and added some nonmetallic pesticides. The resultant products, ammonium copper quaternary (ACQ) and copper azole, are less hazardous but still have problems: impacts from copper extraction and processing, disposal, and leaching of copper that can harm aquatic organisms. With a recent change in how it delivers the copper into the wood, Osmose, one of the major chemical treatment companies, claims that its MicroPro Smart Sense treated wood offers environmental benefits over competing products.

With its partners in China and Taiwan, Smith & Fong has spent over $500,000 in equipment and technology to produce the formaldehyde-free products, according to president and founder Dan Smith. Isocyanurate is very stable once it has cured but is highly reactive in the factory and therefore a threat to workers. The new facility will have “all things that you’d expect in a Western-style environment,” said Smith, in response to questions about worker safety. “People will be working with ventilator headsets” to provide an extra margin of safety, he added. PlybooPure flooring should be available at little or no upcharge, according to the company, but the plywood panels will cost more.

The Ecoblue Cube is a two-inch-square (50-mm-square) block intended to sit on the drain of a standard urinal. It slowly releases bacteria, which multiply and form a biofilm that lines the bowl, trap, and pipes. The bacteria metabolize uric acid, the culprit behind urine odor and uric scale. By reducing or eliminating this odor, the bacteria also eliminate the need to flush after every use. Depending on how the urinal operates and drains, flushing may be necessary just once a day, during regular cleaning.

Lewis Kitts, director of buildings and grounds for the public school in Jamestown, Rhode Island, began using the Ecoblue Cube with eleven 1.6-gpf urinals in March 2006. Kitts’ staff altered the existing manual flush lever so that maintenance personnel can use a simple device to flush, but occupants cannot. Staff flush the urinals twice a day, and clean them daily, as they did prior to using Ecoblue, Kitts said. Using the product, the urinals are “easy to clean and smell good, performance is good, and water use is way down,” said Kitts, whose water bills indicated a 24,000-gallon (91,000-l) savings during the nine months since he started using the Cubes. In addition to saving water, using the Cubes is significantly cheaper than replacing standard urinals with ultra-low-flush or waterless models, “not to mention that you can go back to using water anytime you need to,” said Kitts.

Enter Armstrong’s Migrations line of biobased composition tile. Introduced at the 2007 Greenbuild Conference in Chicago—the product will become available in early 2008—Migrations uses BioStride, a newly developed corn-based polyester binder instead of PVC to hold the tile together. Armstrong invented and has applied for a patent on BioStride, but the polymer will be produced by a partner company. As with VCT, the majority of the tile content is limestone (about 85% by weight), including about 10% post-consumer recycled limestone. The BioStride polyester, which includes a small percentage of petroleum products, allows the flooring to contribute to a rapidly renewable credit in the LEED Rating System. (While biobased polymers offer alternatives to petrochemical feedstocks, some environmentalists raise concerns about the chemical-, water-, and energy-intensity of products derived from corn, as well as the U.S. reliance on genetically modified strains of corn.)

Migrations has been certified through the FloorScore program of the Resilient Floor Covering Institute as complying with California’s 01350 indoor air quality standards. (See

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of the

GreenSpec Directory and

What makes LLF’s LR6 different from other LED lighting products is the way it produces white light. Most white LEDs are actually blue LEDs coated with a yellow phosphor. (For more on LED lighting see

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The Cube3 Ultra urinal consumes just one-eighth of a gallon (0.5 liters) per flush. Its Smart Demand integrated logic system detects usage, rather than motion, to activate the flush. “This is the first liquid-sensing automatic flushing mechanism in a urinal,” according to Derek Kirkpatrick, manager of Caroma USA. The technology eliminates accidental flushing due to movement in front of the urinal. The liquid-detecting sensor is concealed in the drain of the urinal, reducing risk of damage during cleaning. In addition to the water-conserving flush mechanism, the Cube3 Ultra has a double-glazed vitreous china surface—standard on all Caroma urinals—that provides a high sheen, aids cleanability, and reduces staining.

Caroma introduced the Cube3 Ultra urinal in 2005 in Australia, where thousands have been installed, according to Kirkpatrick. The first North American installation was in early 2007 in the 16-story, LEED-registered Molasky Corporate Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has 29 of the urinals.

Alpen’s business is split about evenly between residential and commercial window products. Most of Alpen’s windows aren’t quite as phenomenal as those on the north face of RMI, but they are still impressive. Increasingly, the company is combining suspended low-e Heat Mirror films with low-e

coated glass. For applications where heat avoidance is a priority (such as west-facing windows), the company uses Cardinal’s new 366 Low-E3 glass (see