TORONTO—BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of GreenSpec and Environmental Building News, announced the Top 10 Green Building Products for 2012. This tenth annual award, announced at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference in Toronto, recognizes the building products representing important green building innovations for the year ahead.
“There are more ‘green’ building products than ever, but not all of them address a real need—or worse, some of them may create new problems down the road,” says BuildingGreen founder and GreenSpec executive editor Alex Wilson. “In selecting this year’s Top 10 products, we looked for companies that solved pressing needs in energy efficiency, reduced toxicity in building materials, enhanced retrofit applications and offered unique solutions in other areas.”
This year’s selections are diverse, including a packaged graywater system facilitating landscaping water efficiency, a pioneering solar thermal system using water as its heat-transfer medium instead of glycol for increased efficiency, an air-to-air heat pump system with integrated tenant submetering—key for multifamily applications— and a durable, PVC-free resilient flooring. “Products with multiple environmental attributes, such as durability combined with low toxicity, remain a key frame of reference for our Top 10 selections,” Wilson said.
Drawn Primarily from GreenSpec
BuildingGreen’s Top 10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn primarily from new additions to GreenSpec, the company’s database of best-in-class green building products, with more than 2,200 featured listings and product lines. “It’s exciting to see the new products being introduced to the market each month,” Wilson said. New products are reviewed in-depth in Environmental Building News and in GreenSpec’s email newsletter.
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 or for the energy or water savings that certain green products can achieve. “LEED continues to spur manufacturers toward market transformation,” Wilson said.
The BuildingGreen Top 10 Green Building Products for 2012 are listed below.
• InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles with non-PFC carpet fibers.
• Lifeline PVC-free resilient flooring from Upofloor OY imported by Altro Floors.
• Knight Wall CI-Girt Rainscreen System from Knight Wall Systems.
• EonCoat waterborne ceramic coating from EonCoat LLC.
• Aqua2use Graywater System from Water Wise Group, Inc.
• Cypress Envirosystems analog-to-digital wireless thermostat.
• Ritter XL solar thermal system from Regasol.
• Mitsubishi Electric’s Ductless Heat Pumps and Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems with Tenant Submetering.
• AllSun Trackers from AllEarth Renewables.
• Philips EnduraLEDs from Philips Lighting.
Go to BuildingGreen.
