Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

Habitat for Humanity has built a LEED Platinum prototype–could the charitable organization be making an historic shift toward green?

From GreenSource magazine:

“Among the home’s “ultra-sustainable” attributes are super-insulated exterior walls, a high-efficiency HVAC system, a solar-powered hot water system, low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-VOC paints, carpeting, and adhesives, and kitchen cabinets that were constructed by local high school students using reclaimed materials. Solatube skylights, along with strategically placed windows, bring daylight to the home’s interior, drastically reducing the need for electric lighting during the day. Outdoors, the light-colored concrete roof tiles help reflect the desert heat while harvested rainwater irrigates the fruit trees and vegetable garden that lie amid a landscape of drought-tolerant plants.”

Read the full story at GreenSource’s website here.

Another beautiful morning at McCormick Place! The show is winding down, but there’s still plenty to do and see!

 Couple of things of note:

• Twitter Twits: If you’re not checking out the tweets with the hashtag #KBIS and #KBIS2010, you totally should be!  The chatter will give you some great ideas about what’s happening over here or, if you’re here, some neat things to check out.
• Awesome trend: Bidets.  You read that correctly.  If you’ve followed these pages closely, you know your loyal M.E. is into this Euro-centric trend and has been waiting patiently for advanced and sensible hygiene to reach the U.S. mainstream.  Well, it looks like my wait might be over, for this is the Year of the Bidet at KBIS.  Coway’s got ‘em, Kohler’s got ‘em and, of course, TOTO’s got ‘em.  And @CowayUSA has a presentation that is hilarious and informative.
• New finishes are everywhere; I’ve seen a ton of oil-rubbed bronze and some new distressed takes on that finish.  Lots and lots of matte whites and matte blacks from companies like Webert which is displaying for the first time at KBIS; Webert is the exclusive US partner of Elkay.  The same holds true for hardware; Atlas Homewares has a full collection of sleek transitional hardware in matte white; something Adrienne Morea, president and designer of the Atlas lines said was done to avoid the white hardware from having a “plasticky” look to them.
• Green.  It’s not a trend, it’s the direction of the industry, and you’ll find the mission stated at every booth in some way.  From new, Tier 3 EnergyStar appliances to showerheads which meet the new WaterSense standards for showers, to WAC lighting’s net zero energy factory in China: companies want you to know what they’re doing to help.

This show ushers in a new era of Tweeting for Kitchen & Bath Sustainable; come follow me @KBDNSustainable.

Now to return to New York and  finish up our stellar May issue; more post-show news is forthcoming later this week.  Hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage–leave your thoughts in the comments!

Andrea

Greetings from your overly enthusiastic Managing Editor!  It’s early in the day here at the show, but here’s a few highlights!

• Spotted cameras taping at Fisher & Paykel. . . there have been a number of chef demonstrations over there, so if you’re in the north hall, I recommend doing a drive-by to see what the hub-bub’s about and maybe get yourself a cheeseburger!
• David Kohler’s State of the Industry address is happening in fifteen minutes.  More on that to come!
• I sat in on Thomas Shuler’s innovation talk at the NKBA main stage; Shuler’s the president of DuPont Building Innovations and he’s all about new ways of thinking about how you interact with your customer.  Look for more on that later today.
• Lots of people are smiling; the show’s got a positive vibe and both visitors and exhibitors are reporting lots of interest and plenty of traffic.

The hotbed of sustainable hospitality design, Hospitality Design Green Day (HD Green Day, if you’re into the whole brevity thing) is headed back to Las Vegas at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, and Venetian Conference Center on Tuesday, May 18. The event takes place prior to the Hospitality Design Show, which runs from May 19-21.

 A neat event all by itself, this year’s HD Green Day features a USGBC project sure to wow. From the press release:

“One of the major highlights during HD Green Day will be unveiling the winning design from the inaugural Sustainable Suite Design Competition, presented by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in conjunction with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and NEWH, Inc.-The Hospitality Industry Network. Selected by a jury of industry experts from 65 entries, design firms WATG and IDEO will present their inventive suite, Haptik, a Greek term meaning to experience interactions based on sense of touch. The presentation will be made by WATG’s Raj Chandnani and Rhonda Rasmussen which precedes the inaugural exhibit of the winning entry at HD Expo, on display May 19-21, 2010.“

Great stuff.  For more information on HD Green Day and other events going on surrounding the Hospitality Design show, visit the event Web site here.

Happy World Water Day!  This is a day dedicated to bringing about awareness of all the water issues faced by people in developing nations, and to promote water conservation.

American Standard is getting the word out by creating the longest line for the bathroom ever in Washington, DC.  More after the jump. (more…)

The Green BIM conference is coming up in Boston this May, which covers Building Information Modeling and sustainability which, according to organizers: ”These powerful trends are now converging as designers and contractors learn how to leverage modeling, analytical and simulation technologies to improve sustainable outcomes.”

For more info about the event, visit its Web site here.

Headed to the airport in about twenty minutes, suitcase packed full of press kits!  Products, products, products to come.  Hope you all had a great week, and can’t wait to dish the goods on kitchen and bath goodies coming down the pipe.

 Did you go to the show?  What did you think?

Last night’s opening plenary, held at Chase Field (FKA, for baseball fans, the BOB), featured Rick Fedrizzi, the CEO, president and founder of the United States Green Building Council, who urged a course of “investment spending, not consumption spending.”

Dubbed Main Street Green, this year’s Greenbuild, the eighth edition of the event, focused on the efforts of green building councils around the world. Fedrizzi introduced GBC leaders during the plenary; each gave remarks noting each region’s challenges and triumphs in sustainable building. Representatives came from the U.K., South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, Taiwan and Brazil.

The keynote speech was delivered by this man:
You may remember him from his gigs as Nobel laureate, presidential candidate, vice president of the United States, or from that little PowerPoint presentation-turned-Oscar winner, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Gore gave a pep rally, celebrating the attendees and their efforts toward green building. The event closed with a performance by recording artist Sheryl Crow.

*

Today’s a big day: lots of appointments to see manufacturers, and hopefully I’ll get to catch a bit of the green film festival!  What are you seeing?  What’s hot?  Leave it in the comments!

Some notes from the floor:

• So much bigger than last year!  Over 1,800 exhibitors and 24,000 preregistered.  The floors are abuzz already!
• The Phoenix Convention Center, a LEED silver facility is beautiful and doesn’t make my nose run, like most traditional convention centers have in the past.  That’s a good sign.
• Ever been to a trade show?  There’s lots of new carpet all over the place, offgassing VOCs all over the place!  This place smells neutral, like virtually nothing at all.  And all carpeting will be recycled by Shaw flooring, so bonus points for that.
• Products, products everywhere!  More to come.

Officials cut the ribbon to officially open Greenbuild at the Phoenix Convention Center.

It’s never too early, in my humble opinion, to start thinking about Greenbuild, so here we are: THINK ABOUT GREENBUILD!  Last year, it was impossible to find a hotel room if you didn’t book in advance, so I recommend getting on that ASAP if you plan to attend this year’s festivities in Phoenix.  It’s going to be quite a scene: Al Gore and Sheryl Crow the night before the show starts?  I’ll take it.

 But a little bit more from the USGBC, with links:

“The 2009 show will be held on Nov. 11-13, 2009, in Phoenix, Ariz. This past year’s conference in Boston, Mass. drew more than 28,000 attendees and featured more than 800 exhibit booths. Visit www.greenbuildexpo.org for more information. To view last year’s Greenbuild show, go to www.greenbuild365.org and to watch a video recap, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghqw9WqZ_i4“