Using biobased content in building products in place of petrochemicals seems like a no-brainer, but in order for that content to have a positive environmental benefit, it has to come from a responsible source and function as well as or better than the material it replaces.

Most biobased coatings, such as milk paint, are generally not suitable for heavier-traffic residential and commercial applications that have to withstand abrasion and other performance requirements, but Benjamin Moore and Dutch resin manufacturer DSM have teamed up to develop the Natura Renew line of biobased acrylic paint, which they say performs just like standard paint. Unfortunately, the companies are not revealing the plant source of this biobased material, making it impossible to judge the paint’s overall environmental performance.

Fixit 222 is a lime plaster to which granulized silica aerogel has been added. It can be sprayed or troweled onto a wall and then coated with a harder surface plaster to provide a stucco cladding that can be fully exposed to the elements. While standard portland cement plasters provide very low R-values (considerably less than R-1 per inch), Fixit 222 provides R-5.15 per inch (0.028 W/mK).

In the beginning, there was MOIST, one of the first hygrothermal modeling software tools invented.

This may be about to change, however, because ChloroFill—a San Diego company with manufacturing facilities in Missouri—will be launching its DurahStyle sorghum architectural panels in the summer of 2014.

Another smart glazing product is about to emerge from the lab and into commercial production, giving projects more options in specifying windows that can block the sun’s heat—or let it in, depending on conditions.

RavenBrick, based in Denver, is wrapping up work on its facility and plans to begin production of RavenWindow by late spring 2014. RavenWindow is a filter that can be added to standard insulated glass units (IGUs) and will tint at a certain temperature, reducing glare and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC)—with projects seeing up to 30% energy savings, according to the company. At the same time, Suntuitive from Pleotint offers another option in thermochromic glazing.

Carnegie Fabrics has introduced Biobased Xorel—an updated version of its high-performance wallcovering textile made from polyethylene yarn. The company uses sugar-cane-derived ethanol for 60%–85% of the material, and three of the most popular Xorel patterns are no longer available in the original fossil-fuel-based version, according to Cliff Goldman, president of Carnegie, who told EBN that there is no cost premium for the biobased version of the product and that the product performs exactly the same way as the traditional fabric.

Durability

Wallcovering innovations have been rare in the last decade.

Among the new wave of highly efficient windows and doors, some are going beyond the strict energy criteria set by the Passivhaus Institute (PHI) to offer additional green features and innovations designed to reduce overall environmental impact. Most frontrunner products are imported, suggesting European manufactures continue to lead in quality (see “European Windows for Passive House Buildings”). However, U.S. manufacturers have begun to certify windows through the international standard and may soon offer products with competitive performance and lower embodied transportation energy.

There is a new polypropylene pipe available in North America: Polystar.

Manufactured in Germany by Baenninger, Inc., imported by Watts Water Technologies/Orion, and distributed nationally by ISCO Industries and other companies, Polystar is the first polypropylene pipe to be introduced in North America since Aquatherm (see “Fusiotherm Polypropylene Piping from Aquatherm”) in 2003. Polystar has performance characteristics similar to those of Aquatherm but is being marketed primarily for commercial and light-industrial applications as a replacement for PVC, copper, and steel pipe.

BuildingGreen, publisher of EBN, has announced its Top-10 Green Building Products for 2014. The twelfth annual awards are our editors’ picks of the most innovative green building products that we’ve seen in the course of the continuous product research and review processes that inform GreenSpec and EBN.

Earth Measure, a collaboration between Coldspring and Jason McLennan, is a dimension stone product that takes waste from stone manufacturing and arranges it in patterns that mimic elements of the natural world—like seashells, drying mud, and reptile skin—to provide a connection with nature. Earth Measure can be used for both exterior and interior applications, such as pavers, flooring, or walls, and the stone can be provided from regional quarries, depending on project location.

What do we do with the large number of aging commercial buildings that have been built over the last half-century? These buildings often look dated, and they can be extremely inefficient; occupant comfort can be a problem, as can operating costs; and all these factors make it difficult to keep tenants. Demolishing these buildings is a waste (see “Retrofits (Usually) Greener Than New Construction, Study Says”), but bringing them up to date comes at a significant cost to owners and disruption to tenants. The ERC 50 Modernization Façade from Schüco, may help change this. This façade is a modular rainscreen system that incorporates windows and can be installed quickly without significantly disturbing occupants, while potentially delivering high levels of thermal insulation.

The ERC 50 Modernization Façade includes an aluminum load-bearing framework that is secured to the building structure using specially designed brackets. Installed on the building exterior at the ceiling level on each floor, these brackets can be adjusted in any direction to account for walls that are uneven or no longer plumb. The aluminum grid/frame is anchored to the brackets, and Schüco’s windows are installed and sealed against the building (the original windows are left intact until the entire exterior façade is finished). Mineral wool insulation is then secured to the building, and the thin panels are mechanically attached to the frame using EPDM gaskets—and without the use of caulk, making it possible for the panels to be easily replaced if damaged. After the façade is in place, the original windows are removed, and the interior is trimmed out.