Kitchen & Bath Sustainable

 We interrupt this regularly scheduled K/BIS to update a story I hope you’ve been following as much as I have.

 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).

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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If you’re anything like me, you probably have a stash of change somewhere in case of a vending machine emergency.  (I never know when I might require peanut M&Ms.) I don’t know if it’s the economy, or if it’s because of the transition in government, or the frantic tone of the news agencies, or the fact that my bank keeps changing names, but I find myself looking at the housing numbers reports and breaking into my emergency vending machine fund more and more often these days.

So any news from the USGBC, which is made up of a bunch of generally bright and cheery folks, is good news and the latest from them is the greatest: a flurry of recently released reports seem to confirm that no matter what ups and downs occur in the building sector, green is going to be a driving force in the overall recovery.  Terrific!  We’ll all have jobs, and I can save my change for New York City parking meters.

Read on here for the better news. (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!

My final day of Greenbuild has been a rousing success already, and I haven’t even been on the exhibit floor yet!

• Made a contact who’s going to give me the low-down on the new CARB regulations next week.  Get ready for everything you ever wanted to know about California air regs, but were too afraid to ask.
• Had a bang-up interview with the VP of Underwriters Laboratory about the soft launch of the company’s new environmental certifications program.  UL’s new program is going to be a one-stop shopping for manufacturers looking to conform to green standards and get a third-party seal of approval to take to market.  Very cool stuff.  More on that tonight.
• The AIA’s “Walk the Walk” program has a presence here; they’re fully launched now beyond their statement of purpose. For more info, go here–going to stop by and learn all about it, so more on that to come, as well.
• There’s insulation here made of sand.  I thought spray-foam was ingenious, so I’m totally bowled over by this.  This isn’t directly related to kitchens or baths, but as insulation is often the cheapest and easiest way to improve a home’s energy efficiency, this is a basic building block to get acquainted with. And, of course, there’s an organization just dying to tell you all about it: the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association.

The long-awaited photos will be up tonight.  Hope you’re all having a great show, and remember, if you’re not attending but want to stay connected, you can get a variety of content on Greenbuild365, including the opportunity to watch the remainder of speeches, as well as the closing keynote tomorrow, streaming live on your computer.  More info to come later.

Stay green and stay tuned!

Salutations from the center of Sustainability! Your humble green editor here, reporting live from Greenbuild Boston!

This morning saw the delivery of keynote addresses by Boston Mayor Thomas Mennino, President and CEO of the United States Green Building Council Rick Fedrizzi, and the main event, a speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Full report on the speeches to come, but it suffices to say that those three speakers managed to keep this little reporter awake at an early hour.

Early attendance estimates put the show at around 30,000–which is definitely bigger than last year. Fedrizzi says that just yesterday, an additional 2,000 attendees signed up here at the convention center.

Fedrizzi called this “a definitive moment in time” and indeed, it seems to be. With the projection of record-setting attendance and more exhibitors than any Greenbuild in the past, green=growth doesn’t seem to be an empty tagline.

I’ll have photos and more news (from the event, from manufacturers and more!) to come soon. And if you’re at Greenbuild, keep me updated with what you’re seeing.

Stay tuned, and stay green!

Good evening, Greenies.  I’m leaving tomorrow for Greenbuild so expect a flurry of excited reports from the field.

The green party is going to be all over the city, and if you need help, check out the green schedulers available to you here. The USGBC throws an organized shindig, that’s for sure.

Safe travels, everyone, and check back for photos and updates beginning November 19!

The schedule is filling up and the plans are being set: Greenbuild is nearly here!

It’s like an Environmentalist holiday!p>

Plenty of events have been scheduled to coincide with the Greenbuild calendar of events, but here’s one I thought was particularly interesting, especially for those of you who aren’t making the trip to Boston this year.  The slate of speakers will cover a range of topics integral to green design–bonus: you can earn 1.0 free AIA learning unit.  Take a peek, and if you “attend,” do let me know what you think!

The 2008 BD+C Green Product Webcast will focus on fundamental issues surrounding the evaluation, specification and procurement of green products, including the environmental, social and financial considerations of building products and their related LEED goals and metrics. This program is broken into three key segments, each covering critical elements of green products, including: Material and process selection - including energy use, renewable and sustainable material selection, and life cycle analysis. Indoor air quality - which covers human health concerns, sources of indoor air pollution, new guidelines for building design, low-emitting product selection, and construction sequencing.   Moisture management procedures – describing such topics as the health and financial impact of mold growth, moisture sources, and third-party review of site, systems and materials selection. Featured speakers: Dr. Marilyn Black, founder of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI), of Marietta, GA, a non-profit organization that oversees the GREENGUARD Certification Program SM.JoAnn Brookes, AIA, LEED AP, Senior Associate and Project Architect with HOK in St. Louis, Missouri. Taylor Gonsoulin, P.E., CIAQP, LEED®AP, General Manager, Building Consulting Group of Air Quality Sciences, Inc. of Marietta, GA. To register, click here.