Top 10 products & concepts from Greenbuild

Ken Edelstein Dec 2, 2010

I didn’t get to go to Greenbuild 2010 a couple of weeks ago in Chicago. Maybe you didn’t either. Well, at least, our friends Walter Brown and Jodi Mansbach — both VPs over at Green Street Properties — brought back their list of “Top 10 Great New Products or Concepts We Encountered at Greenbuild 2010.”

Honeywell wind turbine

Just one point before getting to the list: It actually was posted first by Green Street in our “Inside Stories” section, which is exactly what I hope other Green Building Chronicle readers will do. “Inside Stories” is freely available to members; it’s not only a good way to get company PR on our radar and the radar of our readers, but it’s a great way to start conversations in the green-building community.
OK. Without further ado, here’s Brown and Masbach’s list of “10 Great New Products or Concepts We Encountered at Greenbuild 2010″:

1. High-design recycled outdoor furniture. Think recycled milk jugs turned into Dwell-worthy outdoor tables, chairs and other patio furniture. Check out the Adirondacks at www.lolltrade.com.
2. A toilet and a handwashing lavatory built-in one. Extreme droughts in Australia led Caroma to create this toilet with a built-in lavatory. After using the toilet, you can wash your hands in the attached lavatory. The gray water from your handwashing fills the tank for the next flush.
3. Green roofs and now green walls. Green roofs have been all the rage for the past few years, but we saw a whole lot more of green wall products this year. Some systems are simple structures designed to support vines, but the more interesting ones offer a structured modular panel system that contains the soil or uses a non-soil growth medium like a fabric mat or other system. Panels are watered using conventional irrigation drip. Our favorite application? Hiding unsightly parking decks.
4. Turning stormwater into public art. Rather than hiding stormwater infiltration underground, there are installations where the process is celebrated and incorporated into a work of public art. Calling attention to the issue, rather than hiding it, is a terrific educational tool.
5. Natural swimming pools without chlorine or salt. There are 20,000 of these pools in Europe and Australia but very few in the U.S. It’s not salt water but fresh water that is treated in a regeneration zone through a biological filter that employs the action of the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to do the work. Water is pumped continuously in and out of the swimming area to keep the water fresh.
6. More control over your lighting means more control over your electrical costs. It’s even easier to control lighting with the new combination motion sensors and two-stage lighting controls that replace most wall switches. Lighting controls by Leviton, Lutron, and Watt Stoppers have become highly sophisticated and offer significant energy savings over conventional controls. Leviton has several models including ones with dimmer and night light options.
7. Submetering taken to a whole new level. It looks cool and it identifies waste. It’s the Modlet. Existing office equipment is plugged into this box that is plugged directly into the wall. A web based system allows an office or facility manager to see the energy draw off of all the equipment and identify areas of waste. The dashboard quantifies costs in dollars and kWh.
8. Harness the power of your elevator. For large buildings with multiple elevator banks, it is now possible to transfer the momentum of braking the elevator cab in the downward motion into electrical energy using regenerative braking systems. Energy savings are estimated to be as much as 50% of total elevator electrical use. Both Kone and Otis are offering regenerative braking.
9. Easily track water, gas, steam, electrical or chilled water usage. We liked the simple installation of the D-Mon utility meter which can be attached to existing pipes and wires (anything that has a pulse or electro-magnetic energy field). With the system in place, information is relayed in 15-minute intervals via ethernet to EMS or on-site computer system. Data can also be sent via the internet to a Web-Mon “Meter Dashboard” that provides constant and cumulative utility readings and carbon footprint analysis and reports. The system costs range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending features.
10. Install a wind turbine on your roof. Honeywell’s new wind turbine can be mounted on most roofs due to its much lower weight and vibratory specifications. The system has the ability to “cut-in” at very low wind speeds beginning at .5 mph, and can handle up to 40 mph before shutting off. The 6-foot diameter turbine is more like a giant bicycle wheel with the outside “rim” moving through a continuous electro-magnetic field without any frictional losses. With a federal tax credit of 30% and some states offering additional grants, we estimate that the system has a payback of as little as eight years (or less where production incentives exceed net-metered savings).