Happy World Environment Day!  For the uninitiated, today is the U.N.’s equivalent of Earth Day.  To learn more, check out the WED Web site here.

When you’re there, be sure to check out the Twitter for Trees (@UNEPandyou, for you Twitter twits out there) campaign and updates of David de Rothschild’s amazing Plastiki project.

(More about Plastiki, de Rothschild’s project to bring awareness to the cess pit that is the North Pacific Gyre, a story worthy of coverage in this reporter’s opinion, available here at The New Yorker)

Photo: BuffaloReadings.com, via TreeHugger.

The New Jersey-based company just announced it’s conducting monthly Webinars on what it’s calling “LED Basics”–what they are, how they work, and what their potential holds for energy efficiency.

See the complete release and info on how to sign yourself up, after the jump.

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Anything great and green happening in your ‘hood?  Leave it in the comments!

 Remember Greensburg, KS?  Remember how an F5 tornado 1.7 miles wide flattened 90% of the structures in town on Friday, May 5, 2007?  With virtually nothing left standing in Greensburg but the grain elevator, the New York Times reported on May 7, 2007 that the town of approximately 1,500 would have to be completely rebuilt. 

 Seven days later, there was already talk of rebuilding, and the town leaders were beginning to envision emerging from the tragedy.

 July brought the exciting news that Greensburg was literally going to become a Green burg, and the sustainable building folks rejoiced.  The goal: LEED Platinum, the first-ever city to aim for the rating. Zero-energy commercial buildings, houses and schools. Wind power, solar power, energy efficient everything. mong some donors to the reemerging town are names familiar to us in the k&b world like Caroma, Evolve and on the architectural/building side, companies such as Dryvit and PF Waterworks.

 And after one year had passed, the Discovery’s Planet Green channel announced that a new reality program called simply ‘Greensburg’, which had been in planning stages shortly after the LEED announcement, would follow the town’s journey from grisly scene to lean and green.

 Now, it’s the two-year anniversary of the tornado, the bustling town is well into its restructuring and is holding their annual celebration to mark the event.  Not only that, Planet Green renewed the town’s series for a second season; the season premiere is this Monday, May 4… it’s worth a look, for sure.  Check out details and local air times at Planet Green.

 Important themes here for green building and design in general, and a landmark achievement all around for everyone involved; it’s the making of lemonade from organic lemons, to be sure. I’ll be back with more K/BIS coverage later today.

 Stay green, America!

(To see the New York Times’ extensive coverage of the tornado and the rebuilding of Greensburg, click here).

• Moen’s IO Digital shower system is making waves–pun very much intended–and was all the buzz at the company’s media event last night.  Two great features include a “pause” function for those times when you’re in the shower (women: think when you’re shaving your legs) and you need to temporarily halt the stream–which has a convenience benefit coupled with a definite water-savings benefit.  This is also good if you’re the type to check your Blackberry while showering, too. The unit also has a funky little remote control.  You can set it to your favorite temperature then, in the morning, reach for the remote to turn on the shower before you even get out of bed, and the unit will tell you when the water’s at your preferred temperature so you can hop right in.
• Brizo’s making a bold, green statement with their “Green Is Beautiful” campaign: the company is touting its WaterSense compliance as well as its Diamond Seal Technology which acts to maintain the quality of the water that passes through the faucetry that contains it, and is tested to last, according to Brizo, to five million uses, or ten times the industry standard.  Brizo has also gone transparent with its environmentally sensitive processes including water recycling, brass recycling, chemical-free metal cleaning and other neat green features.  For more, click here to go to Brizo’s Web site.

Photos and other news to come!  Stay tuned!

Former Governor Mike Huckabee spoke to that very point at the opening keynote address this morning when he said, “No recession lasts forever,” and current NKBA president Suzie Williford agreed, thanking those in attendance (a near-capacity crowd in the GWCC’s auditorium) for having “the courage to invest in the industry and in your business’ future.”

OK, OK, enough cheerleading.  Here’s the skinny on the good, green products which are (happily) everywhere.

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I’ll be there, in the thick of it, bringing you the latest and greatest (and greenest) from the show floor, getting the scoop on companies big and small.  If you’re going to be there, I hope to see you–I’ll probably chew your ear off about whatever recycled countertop or low-VOC paint I’ve just seen, so be ready.  If you’re not headed to Atlanta, stay tuned to this page!

And should you find yourself thirsty for even more content, sign up here for our pre-show, at-show and post-show eNewsletters for the skinny on new product offerings and the best of what K/BIS has to offer. Stay green, America, and see you in Atlanta!

I’m off to Germany for Duravit’s Design Days ‘09 all next week.  I’ll also be getting a sneak peek at some new Hansgrohe products coming down the pipe–uber exciting! 

I thought I’d take this time to share with you where I go to calculate my travel’s carbon emissions and figure out easy ways to offset my own impact, so if you’re interested check that out here.  Offsetting travel costs is just another way to implement green in your own business, so visit TerraPass and Google the host of other great carbon offset sites that are out there.

See you in February!  Stay green, America!

Here’s a fun story about our new commander-in-chief that comes by way of Benjamin Moore. Perhaps you’ve already seen this photo from January 19 floating around the Internet or on TV, but did you know that the paint that the President is using in that photo is no-VOC Aura by Benjamin Moore?

Obama helped other volunteers roll on Laguna Blue 2059-30 and Yosemite Blue 2059-40 that were provided by Frager’s Hardware, a Benjamin Moore retailer near Capitol Hill. The photo was sent globally on newswires, and the painting session also was featured on television news broadcasts coast-to-coast.

Kinda neat, right? The paint might be blue, but the project is totally green, a nice, sustainable start for our new Prez.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu tells the crowd: “You Americans are wonderful–and crazy! You are the craziest nation I have ever seen! But you are extraordinary and do things that other nations would not dare to dream of. Like what you are doing here.”

The LEED certified project gallery flashed shots of projects with LEED certification status and details about what earned each that status.

One of dozens of recycling stations scattered around the BCEC. Each one was manned with a volunteer (see pleasant-looking fellow in green tee shirt) who was there to sort what-was-formerly-known-as-garbage among the three containers seen here. Above, a plasma screen flashes information about conference and educational sessions.

The Upstate New York chapter had a fun map where members could pin where in the state they were working on LEED candidate projects.

A shot of part of the show floor with a couple of names familiar to us kitchen & bath folks, but with a much different format. As one rep from a competitor fixtures company said, “Looks a lot different than K/BIS–look at Kohler! I mean, their booth is still the biggest, but what a difference.”

I replied, “Seriously! Where are the fire-breathers? The acrobats and belly dancers?”

Ah well, only 159 days until K/BIS. That’s right. I said it. (58 until IBS, but who’s counting?)

See? I’m not the only one looking ahead. Next year, Greenbuild will be in Phoenix, which will be great, because the likelihood of 15 degree windchill is significantly less in Phoenix than it is in Boston. (No complaints though; while I was away it lightly snowed at home in New York)

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