Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

Green Certification Reported Up Sharply

New York — The number of home builders, remodelers and other members of the real estate and construction industry who hold the Certified Green Professional (CGP) educational designation now tops 4,000, the National Association of Home Builders announced.
The milestone, according to the Washington, DC-based NAHB, “is the latest sign that NAHB green building education and training initiatives continue to find an enthusiastic audience”.
The NAHB Research Center, which administers the National Green Building Certification program for new homes, developments and remodeling projects, is also reporting “solid growth,” according to the NAHB. More than 350 homes have been certified and there are 4,500 projects in the certification pipeline, the association reported.
“When the housing market rebounds, it will be accompanied by increased demand for green and energy-efficient new homes and remodeling projects,” the association observed.
CGPs must successfully complete three days of classroom training, have two years of industry experience, and commit to continuing education requirements.
The coursework is now being enhanced to reflect the requirements of building to the National Green Building Standard, the consensus standard for green homes, developments and remodeling projects approved by the American National Standards Institute in January.
In addition, NAHB said it is creating advanced training for CGPs that will result in a new designation for building practitioners: the Master Green Builder Remodeler.

• Cifial USA has partnered with the EPA’s WaterSense program; the company has announced that two of its collections (Quadra and Techno) are now WaterSense labelled.
• The USGBC says “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Green By Now”; new headquarters at 2101 L St. NW in Washington DC is LEED Platinum certified. Tours available, no kidding. Check out the specs here.
• Samsung Staron announces SCS certification for recycled material content for 7 Staron products (all with fun names like Pebble, Seastar, Fennel and Noir); Prods certified by SCS qualify to help meet LEED standard MR 4.1 and/or MR 4.2.  Read more here. (at Green Lodging News’ site)
• Habitat for Humanity is expanding their green building efforts; a home in Alabama is striving for LEED Gold and Caroma donated a toilet to this effort. Read the full release here. (Document will open in Google Docs)

Indoor air quality is clearly a subject growing in importance, if the amount of new legislation is any indication.  Teragren, the maker of bamboo flooring, panels and veneers, wants you to know it’s got it covered.

This week, the company announced a number of its products have received FloorScore certification for meeting a set of stringent IAQ standards.

FloorScore is administered by Scientific Certifications Systems.  For more information, read the full release after the jump. 

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DuPont has announced that a variety of products from its portfolio have been awarded the National Association of Home Builders’ Approved Product Seal.  This is big news for the company, as its DuPont Surfaces division is the first in that product category to receive the third-party certification.

Read the full release after the jump. 

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Good morning!

• So this is a little off the beaten path for us, but I received a product release about some pretty little alternatives to paper towels.  File under: Implementing Green Style!  Who doesn’t like a chance for everything in the kitchen to coordinate?
•  The USGBC gives a big thumbs-up to the House of Reps for passing green incentives legislation.
• Natural Home magazine gives yet another peek into the massive design/build project that is the rebuilding of Greensburg, KS. 

All this, after the jump! (more…)

This year’s Marchin’ right along!  We’re marching to the beat of a different drummer this year!… OK, enough with the March puns, and down to some green housekeeping.  Let’s get caught up with some good green news.

First, a convenient slideshow–TreeHugger shows you what the new Prez is going to help you buy, via tax credits in the new stimulus package.

Nick Grohe of Hansgrohe addresses low-flow, aeration and the various green benefits water products can provide in this handy-dandy Q&A.

The USGBC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (doesn’t that sound peaceful?) with BREEAM, Green Star, Green Building Council Australia and the UK Green Building Council to get the beginnings of a standard metric of CO2 emissions assessment in new home and building construction started.  Read it here.

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…

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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.

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• The keynotes are available to stream live here.  Definitely, definitely, definitely check out the closing plenary with E.O. Wilson which I, myself, just finished watching.
• For those of you who deal on the commercial side of the business, you might find this interesting: LEED for retail is now open for comments from the industry.  Check that out here. (Fair warning: it’s in PDF format)

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!