Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

HGTV is practically required viewing for us scribes here at KBDN.  Nobody loves a good floorplan like we do.

But apart from its fix-it shows and the remodeling disaster diaries, HGTV has stepped up to the plate for green and really hit it out of the sustainably managed park, so to speak.  From groundbreaking programming to sponsoring an annual Green Home, the network is doing a lot of legwork for the sustainable design cause.

So that’s why I was particularly thrilled to see that the network’s Green Home earn some Brownie points and recognition from the powers-that-be at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA announced this week that the 2009 Green Home in Port St. Lucie, FL  has earned both the Indoor AirPlus and Energy Star labels.  Doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty, either–protects viewers from visual pollution!

For more about the 2009 Green Home including product, process and professionals involved, visit HGTV’s Green Home Web site here.

Read the release after the jump, and let me know what you think of the photos in the comments.

(more…)

The California Air Resource Board regs routinely send shivers up the spines of the manufacturing world, so it’s encouraging to see a company proactively beating deadlines the way Timber Products announced this week.

The company has gotten CARB certification for several of its mills in advance of the January 1, 2010 deadline for compliance.

(If you’re on Twitter, and you want to keep up with TP’s latest product and manufacturing news tweets, you can find the company at @TimberProducts.)

Timber Products’ Medford, OR mill is now CARB 2 compliant.

Read the release after the jump.

(more…)

It’s that kind of Monday: the jobs report is bad, the NAHB and NAR are reporting that everything everywhere is down, so let’s cheer ourselves up with some good news about some great green products.

Snaidero Greens Up, Christopher Peacock Cabinetry Gets Smart and Merillat and Quality Think About Tomorrow…

(more…)

Google has given the world many neat Internet innovations: Froogle, for price comparisons; Google Image Search, for those times when you absolutely need to see what a cuban tree frog looks like, and GMail, with its free, unlimited storage capacity.

Now Google is giving users an easy way to check their hom energy consumption by adding an audit tool, Google Power Meter, to its stable of products in development, reports the New York Times.

More about Power Meter and some green news from paint giant Sherwin-Williams after the jump. (more…)

Greetings greenies!  As the month of January comes to a close, I think we’re off to a good start:  New president, a renewed commitment to the environment, lots of new green products at IBS, new CARB regulations–it’s been a crazy month!

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!

It’s very likely, if you live in the northeast that you’ve heard of Davis & Warshow.  The Maspeth, NY-based company has been a major supplier of kitchen and bath fixtures, tiles and plumbing products for 83 years. KBDN has featured D&W for its achievements in the past, and now K&B Sustainable is working with the company to bring you a snapshot of Implementing Green in action!

So what the heck am I talking about?  Davis & Warshow, which has eight sales showrooms and four distribution centers in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, NY, is turning its original 8.5-acre Maspeth headquarters into what they are calling “Practically Green.”

“Practically Green” is D&W’s sustainability manifesto, a kind of small business model for committing to green in what the company calls a “pragmatic, progressive” way.

“There’s no way to flip a switch and be carbon neutral overnight,” says v.p. David Finkel.  The company has begun implementing the changes which it hopes will eventually lead the Maspeth location to qualify for LEED status.

(more…)

What’s more green than a grassroots effort? How about a green grassroots effort?

Listening to the needs and wants of your clientele has always been a central part of the design business–put this to work as you move forward with your plans for implementing sustainability, as well.  One firm did and here’s the result:

This page, The GREEN Corner, was launched on the Sorensen Design Group in response to the expressed growing interest in sustainability among the firm’s client base, according to executive v.p. Steve Sorensen.

Efforts like this one allow Sorensen and his firm the opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and positions the firm as experts in the field–all just by publicizing things the firm is already doing.

(more…)

Want to get caught up on the changes in LEED for 2009?  You can watch the update streaming live here.  Broadcast begins at 1 pm today, Thursday, November 20.

Enjoy!  If you miss it, or can’t make it, I’ll have the full rundown in the changes for next year available right here next week!

An interesting comment appeared a few days ago on the subject of green certifications:

mpisano says:
“I think the Green initiatives are all fantastic. I just have an issue with some of the certification costs. During our certification process we found that we had already set in motion certain Green standards and were basically 100% doing what we were supposed to do to be Green, but we had to pay a third party to tell us that we are Green - I know Kudos for us. I know Greenwashing happens, but we are Green.

“There is one organization in California that we would have to pay $5,000 to be certified green and $50,000 to be a gold vendor. Something sounds wrong with that. What I am getting at is, we are doing the right things, yet it feels like we are being punished for it.”

So what is the worth of third-party and second-party certification in concrete terms? Does having a designation like ‘LEED AP’ after your name give you a certain green pedigree? And how many clients will know exactly what the Greenguard or Blue Angel or KCMA ESP designations mean in concrete terms?

This week’s question is: How are you using/not using these seals/designations/certifications? Do you feel that you have easy access to information about the programs, or do you still have questions? For example, the USGBC’s LEED certification process is a points system, and that is fairly common to certifying methodology. As a green professional, do you feel confident in explaining these programs to interested clients?

In addition, do you believe that mpisano’s issues regarding certifications and their associated costs need to be addressed?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

When I came on board at Kitchen & Bath Design News in 2006, I took over writing our Openings department, covering new kitchen, bath and specialty showroom openings. After looking at the interview questions we normally asked these dealers, I took it upon myself to add one at the very end: Do you do any sustainable/green design in your business? It was a question that, depending on where in the country I was calling, got either a hearty “Yes! We’re doing more each month!” or an uncomfortable “Um…not really.”

Gradually, I began to probe deeper and, after KBDN launched its Healthy Kitchens department, I started asking members of our industry, “What have you found to be the biggest green challenge?” The answer was oddly the same, regardless of whom I asked or how they’d answered the previous question.

It’s easy to talk green, but the challenge comes down to how to implement it. Indeed, implementation has always been the problem in any new design field, just as it was in Universal Design before the research was done, books were written and guidelines were established. As an industry, we’re now in that critical period of research and development for sustainable design, and it’s important that the how, where, when, what and why of this emerging design theory not slip through our fingers in our quest to “out-green” ourselves in products and designs.

In the coming months, I plan to address the goals, challenges and realities of implementing green design, looking at our concerns as an industry and your concerns as kitchen and bath professionals, mixing it in with some thoughts and advice from the people who are finding ways to implement green every day.

Think green, design with your heart, and stay tuned!