Greenbuild’s expo floor always has products that save water and energy, use rapidly renewable resources, and improve our indoor air quality. But we’re looking for the standouts that deserve extra recognition.

This year, we’ve selected some innovative solutions to some of our biggest environmental challenges, including a few exciting new products from previous BuildingGreen Top 10 winners.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving energy and water, and seeking durable, safe materials: for 14 years, BuildingGreen has given its Top 10 Green Building Products award to products that transform the design and construction industry by helping solve these and other significant environmental problems.

David Edward has been practicing product transparency before those industry buzzwords existed. The family-run company’s U.S.-made furniture is often used in offices where sustainability and the health of occupants are priorities, but the company also supplies products for 15 other manufacturers under license, including Allsteel and Knoll.

Al Gore invented product transparency, too?

In 2003, as a furniture supplier to the LEED Platinum New York headquarters of Generation Investment Management at One Bryant Park, David Edward was directed (and financed as part of a $100,000 initiative) by Al Gore, the green investment firm’s founder, to evaluate the chemical content of all of its materials and to then select the most environmentally responsible components—with the agreement that the information would be made available to others. It was an effort that Gregory Pitts, David Edward’s sales manager and design director, described as “breaking the snow for others,” a way to provide information about materials that would be open to consumers and manufacturers. As a result, the company created, and still builds and maintains, extensive databases of material ingredients for all its furniture; anyone can access this data on the company’s website.

Ten years ago, bamboo flooring was the definitive green building product. It was—and still is—rapidly renewable, versatile, and naturally strong.

Since then, low-quality bamboo flooring products and poor installation have led to floors cupping, warping, denting, and scratching easily, which has hurt bamboo’s reputation for durability. Moreover, the use of urea-formaldehyde resins has hurt bamboo flooring’s green cred.

It’s no secret that waterless urinals have a dubious reputation for causing odor and maintenance problems, but because of their significant water savings they have been installed in many green buildings—and then replaced at considerable expense in some, including the O’Hare International Airport, California’s EPA headquarters, and BuildingGreen’s own office.

The industry keeps adapting, though, and now Sloan contends that its Hybrid urinal (using technology developed by Falcon) has the advantages of a standard waterless unit with few of the drawbacks.

Update: The article now reflects that conveying equipment can contribute toward certain Materials & Resources credits in LEED v4.

Proper air-barrier installation requires careful application and attention to detail, and controlling the quality of liquid membranes and sealants applied to gypsum sheathing onsite can be particularly challenging. To simplify the process, USG and Tremco have teamed up to offer the Securock ExoAir 430 building envelope system.

The system takes USG’s fire- and mold-resistant Securock glass-mat-faced gypsum sheathing and factory coats it with with Tremco’s vapor-permeable ExoAir 230 air- and water-resistant-barrier. Add Tremco’s accessory sealants, and Securock ExoAir 430 provides a one-stop, packaged building envelope system that should speed installation and provide several other performance and environmental benefits.

Three-dimensional wall panels, or sculptural wall panels, provide a look and feel that two-dimensional coatings, panels, and wallpapers can’t match. With patterns that look similar to natural formations, such as dunes, waves, or ripples on water, they can bring a sense of biophilia and movement to an otherwise blank interior wall. Combined with accent lighting, they create changing shadows as day turns to night.

Ceiling fans have come a long way since the days of wicker fan blades and massive, inefficient motors.

High-volume, low-speed fans (some with diameters of 24 feet!) are now common in large commercial and industrial spaces. And smaller, super-efficient—and good looking—fans such as the Haiku from Big Ass Fans, a 2013 BuildingGreen Top 10 winner, are being used more frequently in commercial and residential spaces. The Australian company Aeratron is hoping to compete in this design-forward fan market and is now exporting its energy-efficient ceiling fans to the U.S.

To mitigate the effects of thermal bridging through structural elements that penetrate the building envelope, designers have few good options. Retaining those balconies, canopies, lightshelves, and other features—if it’s even possible to do so without severe energy penalties—may mean completely redesigning conventional assemblies. The alternative is to integrate structural thermal breaks, typically consisting of a layer of less-conductive material between pieces of structural steel or other framing materials.

Coating manufacturer Tnemec Company, Inc. has proposed a third option it says is relatively simple and inexpensive. When sprayed onto structural elements, Tnemec’s aerogel-based coating reduces condensation risk and may also provide energy benefits.