by Ann Withanee — October 7, 2011—Building owners and facilities executives in their never-ending search for viable products take a giant step with the announcement of the Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012, the tenth annual award program by BuildingGreen, Inc. The program recognizes products representing important green building innovations for the year ahead. The announcement was made at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Toronto. BuildingGreen, Inc., is publisher of GreenSpec and Environmental Building News.
“There are more ‘green’ building products than ever, but not all of them address a real need—or worse, some of them may create new problems down the road,” says BuildingGreen founder and GreenSpec executive editor Alex Wilson. “In selecting this year’s Top-10 products, we looked for companies that solved pressing needs in energy efficiency, reduced toxicity in building materials, enhanced retrofit applications and offered unique solutions in other areas.”
This year’s selections are diverse, ranging from a packaged graywater system facilitating landscaping water efficiency, a pioneering solar thermal system using water as its heat-transfer medium instead of glycol for increased efficiency, an air-to-air heat pump system with integrated tenant submetering—key for multifamily applications—and a durable, PVC-free resilient flooring. “Products with multiple environmental attributes, such as durability combined with low toxicity, remain a key frame of reference for our Top-10 selections,” said Wilson.
BuildingGreen’s Top-10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn primarily from new additions to GreenSpec, the company’s database of best-in-class green building products, with more than 2,200 featured listings and product lines. New products are reviewed in-depth in Environmental Building News and in GreenSpec’s e-mail newsletter.
A big driver in the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which awards points for the use of certain product types or for the energy or water savings that certain green products can achieve. “LEED continues to spur manufacturers toward market transformation,” said Wilson. GreenSpec users can find products organized by LEED credits as well as by building category and the CSI MasterFormat structure.
The BuildingGreen Top-10 Green Building Products for 2012 are:
- InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles with non-PFC carpet fibers
- Lifeline PVC-free resilient flooring from Upofloor OY, imported by Altro Floors
- Knight Wall CI-Girt Rainscreen System from Knight Wall Systems
- EonCoat waterborne ceramic coating from EonCoat
- Aqua2use Graywater System from Water Wise Group, Inc.
- Cypress Envirosystems analog-to-digital wireless thermostat
- Ritter XL solar thermal system from Regasol
- Mitsubishi Mr. Slim mini-split and City Multi multi-split HVAC with tenant submetering
- AllSun Trackers from AllEarth Renewables
- Philips EnduraLEDs from Philips Lighting
GreenSpec is a leading national resource for best-in-class green building products. Products are selected by BuildingGreen based on rigorous criteria developed over more than 20 years. Manufacturers do not pay to be listed in GreenSpec, and neither GreenSpec nor Environmental Building News carries advertising.
