NEW CASTLE, DEL.—Speakman Company has unveiled a brand new line of shower and bath products. The newly released product lines include four full bathroom collections of plumbing fixtures. The Neo, Alexandria, Caspian and Rainier collections are now available. The introduction of the new shower and bath products brings a number of new designs to Speakman’s existing product line. Each ensemble of products includes a high performing Speakman showerhead, shower valve/trim and tubspout to complete the showering experience. The offering also features coordinated designer faucets and accessories including a towel bar, a towel ring, two robe hooks and toilet paper holder. Each...

DES PLAINES, ILL.—Chicago Faucets, a leading manufacturer of commercial faucets, introduces the Commander Handheld Programming Unit. Commander allows users to easily program, monitor and troubleshoot Chicago Faucets’ HyTronic and E-Tronic electronic faucets. No tools are necessary to set up and change faucet functions. Without touching the faucet, facility managers and maintenance personnel can easily change and customize operating modes; adjust sensor range; monitor battery levels; identify serial numbers, settings and usage information; and access the troubleshooting guide and product information. Chicago Faucet Commander provides easy-to-read diagnostics and step-by-step adjustment procedures. With Commander, the user can scan for faucets requiring attention. When...

NEW CASTLE, DEL.—Showerhead maker Speakman Company has named Blake Snow new director of sales, Commercial & Hospitality. Snow joins Speakman from Kohler Company where he served in many different capacities, including regional manager, director of marketing for Global Faucets and most recently as director of sales & marketing for Mark David custom contract furniture. His background in plumbing and recent knowledge and experience with the hospitality market will be a key asset to Speakman. Blake’s main focus will be further penetrating the hospitality market with the existing line of high-performing showerheads and the new bathroom collections including Neo & Rainier. In...

SARASOTA, FLA.—Rainwater Warehouse has launched a new website offering a complete range of rainwater harvesting systems and products. According to principal, Jack Burden, Rainwater Warehouse provides a complete range of residential and commercial rainwater harvesting products. The company offers packaged solutions directly to green build developers, builders and homeowners. They also provide commercial grade rainwater harvesting components to builders and owners of commercial properties. Featured on the website is the Rainwater Warehouse Deluxe Rainwater Harvesting System, sold with a 300 or 500 gallon tank. The system offers multiple mounting options for downspout, filter and tank placement and boasts of...

PARIS—Accor recently decided to assess its environmental impact 15 years after it took a stand and started taking concrete action to embrace sustainable development. The company began working on gauging its environmental footprint at the end of 2010. The study stretches beyond measuring greenhouse-gas emissions to encompass energy and water consumption, water pollution and waste generation throughout lifecycles in the Group. “Four thousand and two hundred hotels in 90 countries, 145,000 employees, 56 million breakfasts a year and almost 545 million liters of water a year all add up to the environmental impact that we are now in a position...

ALPHARETTA, GA.—Hansgrohe, the kitchen and bath manufacturer and its designer brand Axor, are heading into 2012 with a new, multi-interface website. In addition to a new design, the site offers a “Hansgrohe PRO” portal, which caters to the needs of architects, designers and trade. It will also incorporate helpful and interactive features such as design and trend ideas, planning programs, a “Water Savings Calculator,” an enhanced “Shopfinder,” as well as easy “point and click” access to the company’s social media pages and feeds. “We wanted to make sure that our customers—whether they are consumers, trade or A & D—have a...

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF.—ClearWater Tech, a manufacturer of ozone systems for water and air purification, has launched its new EcoTex Laundry System website. The new site represents ClearWater Tech’s commitment to the growing needs of their customers in the ozone laundry industry. The EcoTex site offers easy navigation and showcases the most advanced information on all aspects of the EcoTex products and applications. There are relevant news articles, case studies, technical papers, and direct access to sales and customer service. Special features include new EcoTex web videos, including “How EcoTex Works, and just released, “The EcoTex Short Video” highlighting one-on-one interviews...

FRANKLIN PARK, ILL.—Sloan has launched a two-piece, tank-type gravity toilet line. The Gravity Series 9000 toilets, available in single- and dual-flush models, offer another water-saving flushing option for light commercial installations. The Gravity Series 9000 product line includes one 1.6/1.1 gallons per flush (gpf) dual-flush toilet with a flush button on top of the tank and two single-flush models: a 1.28 gpf single-flush toilet and a 1.6 gpf toilet with the option of a left or right hand trip lever. Gravity Series toilets initiate a quiet, yet powerful gravity flush with a siphon jet flushing action. The high-efficiency toilet models enable...

VISTA, CALIF.—A survey conducted in late October 2011 asked facility managers a variety of questions regarding no-water or waterless urinal systems. Forty-two managers who have waterless urinals installed in their buildings completed the survey. Most manage office buildings, while the others are responsible for universities and colleges. The majority of the respondents (57 percent) indicated they have 10 or fewer no-water urinal systems; this was followed by managers with 10 to 50 systems (29 percent), and 14 percent responded that they have more than 100 waterless systems installed in their facilities. Their key reasons for installing waterless urinal systems were the...

ANN ARBOR, MICH.—NSF International, a global public health and environmental organization, has published the first American national standard for commercial and residential on-site water reuse treatment systems, NSF/ANSI 350. The new standard complements NSF’s expanding scope of environmental standards and sustainable product standards, which help establish criteria for and clear methods of evaluating environmental and sustainable product claims. Certifying a water reuse system to NSF/ANSI 350 also satisfies requirements for leading green building programs. The U.S. Green Building Council has included reference to NSF/ANSI 350 in their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Building Design & Construction 2012 Draft...