BuildingGreen LLC, publisher of the “GreenSpec Directory” and “Environmental Building News,” have named the 2008 Top-10 Green Building Products. This seventh annual award, announced at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference in Boston, recognizes exciting products drawn from 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,” notes BuildingGreen president Alex Wilson. There are a particularly large number of interior products in this year’s group of winners: the first FSC-certified and formaldehyde-free bamboo flooring, doors made with wheat-straw particleboard, a line of zero-VOC paint, a transparent finish produced from a byproduct of cheese making and a line of organic fabrics.
Three of the products this year save energy, including a low-cost, solar water-heating system; a combination heating, water heating and heat-recovery ventilation system; and a system for monitoring real-time energy (and water) use in buildings. Water saving products are represented by a line of rainwater storage tanks — the first rainwater storage equipment ever recognized in the Top-10 lists.
Fully half of the products on the list are green in part because they are made from natural, rapidly renewable or agricultural waste materials; natural materials often require significantly less energy to manufacture. A new compressed-earth masonry block is particularly noteworthy in this regard. “Most of the Top-10 products this year have multiple environmental attributes,” says Wilson.
BuildingGreen’s Top-10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn from new additions to the company’s GreenSpec product directory. More than 200 product listings have been added to the GreenSpec database during the past year. “New products seem to be appearing all the time, making it a challenge for our staff to keep up,” says Wilson. The GreenSpec database the company maintains now includes more than 2,000 product listings. “Designers of LEED buildings are looking for green products, and manufacturers are responding,” says Wilson.
Listed in no particular order:
1. Integrity Block’s Compacted Earth Block
2. Fsc-Certified Plyboo Pure Bamboo Flooring From Smith & Fong
3. Natura Paint By Benjamin Moore
4. Rainwater HOG’s Storage Tanks
5. Agilewaves’ Resource Monitor
6. Safe ‘N Sound Emerald Doors By Masonite
7. Matrix Total Home System By NTI
8. O Ecotextiles’ Natural-Fiber Fabrics
9. SunCache Solar Water Heating System By Harpiris Energy
10. PolyWhey Floor Finish By Vermont Natural Coatings
GreenSpec is a national directory of green building products, while Environmental Building News, founded in 1992, is the oldest and most widely respected newsletter in the green building field. For information on BuildingGreen resources, visit BuildingGreen.com or call 800.861.0954.