Did you attend Greenbuild this year? It was recently held in Chicago’s sprawling McCormick Center, and was a colossal event that brought together people from various parts of the world. For us, our days there were packed with educational sessions, time on the expo hall, [...]]]> BuildingGreen’s Top 10 Green Building Products of 2010

Did you attend Greenbuild this year? It was recently held in Chicago’s sprawling McCormick Center, and was a colossal event that brought together people from various parts of the world. For us, our days there were packed with educational sessions, time on the expo hall, and meetings. I attended eight sessions total, but the one I most looked forward to was Alex Wilson’s. He presented BuildingGreen’s top 10 green building products of 2010.

His brief introduction explained that the products are selected from BuildingGreen’s GreenSpec database, a listing of materials screened via a criteria developed over 18 years of work. As with last year (read about 2009’s top 10 products here), the products were presented in no particular order, but I will number them here for ease of recognition.

1. Nyloboards’s NyloDeck – a decking material made from recycled carpet fibers.
2. FOAMGLAS Cellular Glass Insulation – an alternative to expanded and extruded polystyrene insulation.
3. ARNOLD GLAS’ Ornilux Bird Protection Glass – a bio-mimicry inspired insulated glass sheeting that uses an ultraviolet-reflective coating that is almost undetectable by human eyes but is clearly visible to birds, thus helping to minimize bird deaths due to collisions against glass windows.
4. Knoll Inc.’s FSC-Certified Wood Furniture – without a customer request, and except for a few products, Knoll makes its office systems, case goods, and tables using FSC-certified material at no surcharge and at standard lead times.
5. Bensonwood’s OBPlus Wall System – an alternative to standard tract home construction.
6. Niagra Conservation’s Stealth UHET (ultra-high efficiency toilet) – a 0.8 GPF (gallons per flush) unit that uses an air transfer system to pressurize the bowl’s trapway, essentially creating a vacuum that is quiet but effective upon flushing.
7. Wilo’s “Smart” ECM (electronically commutated motor) Pump – an alternative to oversized water circulation pumps, these pumps analyze water demands and adjust their speed accordingly, achieving a 70-90% reduction in water circulation energy.
8. Halton’s Heat Recovery Unit (HRU) – used in commercial kitchens, the HRU captures exhaust, cleans it of grease, and harnesses the heat for building reuse. Due to the immense energy savings, the unit’s payback period is between two to five years.
9. Xicato Spot Module – an LED alternative to halogen lighting that offers consistent color, a uniform beam, and a longer life than halogen in a size similar to an MR16 lamp.
10. Electec’s EZ-Wiring and EZ-Cabling Systems – a “plug and play” option to standard wiring designed for reusability and relocation created without the use of heavy metals or halogens (bromine, chlorine, or fluorine).

To see what BuildingGreen has to say about these products, please read their announcement here.

For anyone who was following our posts regularly, we apologize that our pace has recently dropped off. To explain, our summer was filled with more travel and activity than anticipated. I would love to believe that maintaining a blog while traveling is easy. After all, the applications needed were loaded on both our iPads. [...]]]>

For anyone who was following our posts regularly, we apologize that our pace has recently dropped off. To explain, our summer was filled with more travel and activity than anticipated. I would love to believe that maintaining a blog while traveling is easy. After all, the applications needed were loaded on both our iPads. But finding time to craft stories and write rational text is something that requires far more effort and brain power than we usually have available while on the road. We’ve done tours to sustainable building material manufacturers in Portland, New York City, Boston, New Hampshire, and Philadelphia, and conducted interviews with each owner.

At the same time, we’ve also been fortunate to take on several new projects with some great clients, but with urgent time tables. As a result of reduced time available for writing, we’ve decided to rethink our posting strategy and put the blog on hold while compiling a backlog of articles. Our plan is to begin posting again once we have a month of material ready to go. This way, changes in our work schedule shouldn’t have such a dramatic effect on our posting schedule.

We’re also planning some changes to the blog site which will hopefully improve loading times. And we’ll be adding new features and tweaking the overall design. Those enhancements should go live around October 15.

Thank you for your patience. We’re sorry for the lack of recent content, but we think our new plan will ensure a steady stream of writing without killing our schedules. Please return soon, and feel free to dig through our hundreds of existing posts.

The first full day of sustainable building material tours got off to a rocky start. I awoke to discover that my bank and auto insurance company hadn’t been playing well together for the past three weeks. As a result, I was on the road, with a rental car, and without auto insurance. I never [...]]]>

The first full day of sustainable building material tours got off to a rocky start. I awoke to discover that my bank and auto insurance company hadn’t been playing well together for the past three weeks. As a result, I was on the road, with a rental car, and without auto insurance. I never accept the supplemental insurance offered by the rental car companies, and my insurance company had to think about whether they were going to reinstate my policy, reject me, or allow me to renew. All three are unfortunate choices, but at least the renewal option would allow me to return or drive the rental car without fear that an accident would all be on my tab. I won’t bore you with more detail, but it was finally resolved by late afternoon.

I’ve experienced Portland’s public transportation before, so I know I would be able to make most of my meetings without using the car. But my first meeting was with a small company called Stardust Glass. They’re located outside of downtown and it would have taken more time than I had available to get there. Luckily that meeting was moved to another date and I’ll still get to visit their production facility.

Once I finally got the day of touring started, I found my way to the recycled aluminum product manufacturer Eleek. We’ve written about them in the past (here) and have used their recycled aluminum tiles. This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to meet the owners and see how their products are made. I had a great visit, tour, and interview with cofounder Sattie Clark. I’ll do a separate post about the tour, and another about the interview. For now I’ll say that their small artisan studio is a a fascinating laboratory focused on beautiful form making. It’s a really interesting place.

My second stop was with a solid surface countertop producer that is new to me – a company called Fuez. Although I was not scheduled to meet with the owner, Greg Martin, but he happened to be there when I arrived and agreed to a tour and interview. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the production facility since it was on the edge of town and I was without a rental car. But I hope to either fit it in later during the trip or when I return to Portland. Which I’ve already decided I have to do. There are far too many manufacturers producing amazing products to fit into four days. For anyone unfamiliar, Fuez manufactures a countertop material similar to Vetrazzo, IceStone, and EnviroGLAS. I’ve interviewed and written about all three here. If you haven’t heard of Fuez, it’s likely because the company is fairly new, had been focused on the west coast, and hasn’t done a great deal of promoting. In terms of size, they are smaller than IceStone and Vetrazzo, but larger than EnviroGLAS. There are several aspects of the product that set them apart from the others in their category, but I’ll save that for a full write up to follow.

Although my day was truncated by logistical issues, I was still able to see a few producers and learn more about one company I knew and one that was new to me. Next I take a day trip up to Hoquiam WA to tour some serious manufacturing facilities. Look for that soon.

I travel regularly for work. And when I do, it’s easy to be lazy and turn to chain restaurants, or worse, fast food, for meals. Most people who don’t travel frequently believe that when you do, it’s somehow glamorous. No doubt there are moments when it’s exciting or even fun. But by and large, [...]]]>

I travel regularly for work. And when I do, it’s easy to be lazy and turn to chain restaurants, or worse, fast food, for meals. Most people who don’t travel frequently believe that when you do, it’s somehow glamorous. No doubt there are moments when it’s exciting or even fun. But by and large, it’s work – lines at the airline bag check, lines at security, lines at the coffee bar, lines at the gate, lines at the baggage claim, lines at the rental car desk, lines at the hotel. Depending on the flight, you can spend more time waiting than actually traveling.

So, when I find an easy food solution while on the road, I’m overjoyed. This week I’m in Portland OR. While taking a short break to share a coffee with a friend, she tells me about a new trend toward trailer-based food venues that have been popping up all over town. I’m familiar with some in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles, but it appears that Portland has embraced the idea with real enthusiasm.

I’m told that one of the best can be found on the corner of 12th and Hawthorne in an historic industrial neighborhood on the east side of the river. It’s the kind of place where every telephone pole has years of posters and bills. On one, there are so many staples, I’m a little nervous about losing a layer of skin if I accidentally brush against it. On the northeast corner, a former vacant parking lot has been transformed into a quasi-mobile food court. It looks like a carnival had been through town but the food operators stayed after the rides moved on to the next location. Randomly placed picnic benches and temporary tent structures tend enhance the festival perception.

I would have been convinced of my imagined carnival back story had there actually been a funnel cake vendor. Instead, there’s a pizza trailer named Pyro Pizza, a new BBQ stand called Bubba Bernie’s, a Mexican booth called El Brasero, you get the picture. It seems a bit transient, but several operators have been there for more than two years. Each food vendor cooks and sells from their own converted recreational trailer. It’s like a trailer park of food. It all looked delicious and smelled good, but the reason I’m here is a trailer called Potato Champion.

While I’m waiting to order my fries, I notice Joy Division playing on the speakers. When it’s time to give my name to the kid taking orders, I jokingly tell him Ian. He doesn’t get it. He probably wasn’t yet born when the band’s former singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. Or maybe he simply wasn’t paying attention to the music. He did seem to be mindlessly going through his activities. But all of that added to, instead of detracting from, the experience.

This corner carnival concept is clearly geared to the after hours crowd seeking simple food on their way home from neighborhood bars. None of the menus are complicated, and all are either the main dish or the side item, but not both. Most vendors open at noon, don’t close until 3am, and sell every day except Monday. I’m there on a Sunday evening, so the crowd is light, mixed ages, and mixed groups. I thought at first I may appear like a fish out of water since I was an out of town tourist snapping pictures. After all, the collection of trailers, benches, tents, and port-a-potties are not terribly picture worthy. I was also much older than other customers, but I finally notice that the one thing which sets me apart is my total lack of ink. Everywhere I look there are tattoos. In fact, everywhere I look in Portland there are tattoos. There must be a robust industry of tattoo parlors throughout the city.

It’s difficult to determine if the trailers being used are new or repurposed. I would like to believe they’ve all had wonderful previous lives or were owned by cute old couples spending their final years traveling the country. It’s impossible to tell, but again, I find myself constructing a back story for each. And maybe that’s the real treasure to be found in venues such as this – the neighborhood, site, objects, and crowd are all so rich with potential that your imagination can run wild with possibilities and interesting narratives.

I plan to find a few more to see if there are any trends to identify. I’ll keep you posted.

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A week ago I posted a question on a LinkedIn discussion board asking for sustainable building material manufacturer recommendations in the Portland OR area. I was pleasantly surprised not only by how many responses I received, but also by how many interesting companies there appear to [...]]]>
View on tour: PDX 2010 in a larger map

A week ago I posted a question on a LinkedIn discussion board asking for sustainable building material manufacturer recommendations in the Portland OR area. I was pleasantly surprised not only by how many responses I received, but also by how many interesting companies there appear to be in Portland. I arrived today and will be in the region for the next four days. For anyone who has read this blog in the past, you may be aware our stories of sustainability and on tour articles. Hopefully, the companies on my list will become the subject of some interesting posts over the next few weeks.

Here’s a partial list of tours and interviews:

• Stardust Glass
• Eleek
• Fuez
• Paneltech Industries (Hoquium WA)
• Gray’s Harbor Paper (Hoquium WA)
• YOLO Colorhouse
• Ecotrust
• Rebuilding Center
• Rejuvenation Hardware
• Bamboo Revolution

I’m still finalizing and revising the list, but I’m very excited with what I have so far. I’ll post a few daily photos of interesting finds. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and introduced me to new people seeking to make a difference in the built environment. Stay posted,

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