BuildingGreen has just published their annual list of Top Ten Green Building Products for 2008. The annual awards, now in their seventh year, recognize the most exciting products in the building industry. Building green is more than a hippie fad; in fact, ecological construction is a significant contribution to our efforts to mitigate climate change. Green housing construction grew by 30% in the USA between 2005 and 2006, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, an industry information source.
This years winners include: the first FSC-certified and formaldehyde-free bamboo flooring; doors made with wheat-straw particleboard; a line of zero-VOC paint; a water storage tank, and a transparent finish produced from a byproduct of cheese
making.
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.
“Designers of LEED buildings are looking for green products, and manufacturers are responding,” noted BuildingGreen president Alex Wilson.
Interestingly enough, fully half of the products this year 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.
A big driver in the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which awards points for the use of certain product types, such as certified wood, or for the energy or water savings that green products can achieve.
Visit: http://www.buildinggreen.com/
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