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This week today’s homeowner is on the road in Boston to check out everything that’s new and green at the Greenbuild Expo. There’s plenty to see here so don’t go anywhere.
Outside the Greenbuild show, here in Boston, the weather’s chilly, but inside things are really heating up as crowds of people packed in to see what’s new and what’s green. Of all the green shows we go to, we always find some great brand new innovative products, but a specially here at the Greenbuild Expo.
But it’s not just the new products we’re finding, we’re seeing a lot of older products that are made greener.
And this is a good example. We’re all familiar with the pink insulation. It’s already green, because it helps make your home a lot more energy efficient. But now Owens Corning has refined their manufacturing process, so it now includes a least 40% recycled material.
And that material is glass, that means Owens Corning is one of the largest users of recycled glass in the world.
And because they’re using more recycled materials, they’re actually saving 13% of the energy needed to produce the installation.
That means not only is the Project Green, so as the company.
Hey, we got a lot to show you right now.
Green building is a rapidly growing market, so it’s no surprise that shows like this are growing, too. The attendance is up 25% from last year. There are people here from all 50 U.S. states and more than 80 countries around the world. In spite of the sluggish economy and the number of exhibitors is also up by almost 70%.
This emerging market includes a diverse group of companies with some innovative products and ideas. Which means they’re a lot more options than ever for homeowners. One of your green buzzwords is sustainability. It’s used to describe quite often materials and there are plenty of those to choose from. But I wanted to show you something that we actually looked at last year here at Kirei. It’s a sorghum product, really cool looking. But we’ve got even more this year. I want you to meet John Stein. Hey, John where are you? There you are.
How you doing, good to see you.
You’ve got something new this year, show it to me. What is it?
We do, this year we’ve introduced coconut tiles, so the coconuts are harvested for milk and meat around the world what’s left over is tons and tons of coconut shells which usually just sit in piles and piles and rot. We’ve taken the shells we’ve cut them into small pieces and make mosaic tiles out of them, Bringing new jobs to areas that can use them. We’ve taken trash and making it into treasure.
That’s great. You’ve got artwork, you’ve got cabinetry work, use for cabinet inserts, wow! But I’ve heard a rumor about to John. That you are into an organized unit of some sort? You’re the green Mafia? What is this John?
It’s a party, come happy hour, a group with a green building problem. It’s basically a group of friends that it developed from being it shows like this, being in a green building business. We all found we had similar problems, similar issues that we’re all facing. We kind of use each other to vent back and forth, maybe after the show over cold beverage. And suddenly we said, why don’t we band together and work on these things together? One of the things we do, is we partner with Eco-Clad, it’s another product that’s also very green. And what we found is we combine forces, we can save quite a bit of money on both. Have a more funded, with fun design elements. Instead of all the time. Maybe someone comes in to talk about Eco-Clad in the end they learn and listen. Information and vice versa. It’s not just us and Eco-Clad, Eco-Timber, Ice Stone, Vetrazzo, and lots of other companies with very similar backgrounds. Young companies that have just gotten into the business. We all share the same problems of growing businesses. Also, we found is the building business is a big industry. We’re a small fish in the green building world, which is just growing and reaching the mainstream. Now what we find as if we band together, we make a bigger voice. And we can compete against some of the larger voices in the industry. And hopefully carve out niche in the industry together and we have some fun doing it.
John’s company has certainly found a way to put to use materials that could easily ended up in the landfill. Now, speaking of landfill, here’s a company, Waste Management, that has been able to really help solve a lot of disposal problems over the years, and they’re right on the verge of solving yet another problem.
You know the thing that’s happened over the last few years, so many people are using compact fluorescent lamps or CFL’s. They have certainly been proven to save a lot of energy and they last a long, long time. But once they finally burn out, disposing of them properly has been a problem, because they contain a small amount of mercury. But, Waste Management has developed a system that can make this a lot easier.
Basically it’s a box that you buy it in the box which can be positioned right on the shelf next to your CFL’s is a little foil liner. Once the CFL is finally to burn out, all you do once it’s filled up, you seal up the box, put it in the mailbox, and postage is pre-paid right back to Waste Management to make sure this ends up where it should.
They’ve also done the same thing for household batteries. This is just a great solution to a problem that’s really gotten bigger and bigger over the last two years. Hey speaking of solutions, let’s check in which Joe and see what he has up his sleeve in this week’s Simple Solution. Removing rust typically involves a lot of hand sanding and scraping. Or you buy a chemical rust remover, which are not only expensive but pretty toxic. Here’s a better solution. It’s a homemade rust remover using plain old molasses. That’s right, believe it or not molasses.
You want to start with the container, and add nine part water to one part molasses. In this case it’s about a half of this small paper cup. It’s about it right there. It doesn’t have to be exact but about nine to one. Dump that in there, put in the molasses, mix it up a just a little bit, and then you want to put your rusty piece of hardware or tool. In this case really rusty spade bit.
Now, the reason this works is based on a chemical reaction called the Chelation process, which is where the molasses attacks the iron oxide in the rust, it holds it in suspension. In this case it is mostly surface rust, so we’ll leave it in there for maybe two or three days. Take it out and lightly scraped, it will brush it off with a wire brush.
For more heavily corroded items, you might need to leave it in there for two weeks or so. You’ll find this to be a really effective rust remover, although it is slow as molasses.
Stick around or about to start slinging some mud in Boston.
This week we’re at the Greenbuild Expo here in Boston. And we’ve been to this show before, and boy has it grown so much. Just as an indicator as how much interest there is out there for green building products and other ways to make your home green.
Now, this is a booth we been to before, from a company called American Clay. Now it seems like every time we dropped by the owner of the company, Croft, is always getting his hands dirty. How’s it going Croft?
It’s going great, Danny.
Tell us a little bit more about American Clay. You guys have been around a little while.
We have, since 2002. And we’ve manufactured interior clay plaster for interior wall surfaces in three different finishes for people. So you can get a variety of looks for your house. And the beautiful thing is its natural, needs no harmful chemicals, and it helps the health of the environment.
Well I tell you, you guys must be doing very well, over this last year I’ve seen you on showcase homes all over the country, magazine articles, really proud for you in everything. But tell me about this energy savings thing that you found out about.
Well, it’s really great, because I was skeptical at first. We had people coming back to us saying, you know I’ve seen a drop in my energy bill since I put the clay on the walls. That can’t be the case, but what we’ve done is we’ve started an energy program where, we’ve built some units. We’re doing comparisons between traditional materials and with our material yet. And for really going to quantify exactly what people can expect when they use their clay in their houses.
All that perfect then, save a little money and nice and green approach to it and everything. Hey, looks pretty easy, let me give that a try.
No problem.
While I work on my technique, Allen is meeting up with Sara Gutterman, from Greenbuild magazine, to get her take on the show.
Okay Sara, normally by now I have found my favorite product. No matter what it is I found it. I’m having a hard time this time. You haven’t found one this time, have you?
I have found one, actually. I have indeed, yes. My favorite product here the show right now is this solar hot water heating system by Velux. It’s not a new product. It’s been in Europe for many, many years. But they are rolling it out right now in the U.S., so it’s new to our national market. There are a couple of reasons why I like solar hot water heating systems in general. One is it accesses free energy, who doesn’t like that? Secondly, the systems are equally as applicable for residential or commercial projects or new homes or buildings or retrofit. And a third, I think solar heating systems are very good and relatively low-cost way to make a big impact in terms of energy use, and also just general environmental footprint of a project.
And you’ve got to admit it looks really good up there.
It looks good, and the system by Velux uses the same roof space as a regular skylight. So, you don’t run into the same kinds of homeowner association pushed back, as you would of with some of the other PV systems.
So I can’t believe you found a favorite.
Well, you know I’ve known about this product for a while. And I’ve watched as Velux has rolled it out into the marketplace.
Right. Well, one more task for you then help me find a favorite.
While that search continues, I’m checking out some of the other solar options at the show. This new system from Kyocera, called MyGen, is designed to make photovoltaic solar power a more accessible option for homeowners. They have simplified the process by packaging all of the necessary components in a pre-engineered kit, which is available in five different sizes.
To make the most of that juice, these LED lights from Eclipse Lighting offering 80-90% savings on power consumption. And controlling that light is even easier and greener thanks to this wireless lighting control system from Verve. The switches even generate their own power to relay commands.
By now you may be a little overwhelmed with all the green products and ideas we’ve shared with you. But there are a number of websites that we found here at the Greenbuild show that will help you with extra information. Here is one of them, rateitgreen.com. Basically, it is an online community where you can find out about hundreds of different companies that specialize in green products they also have books and other information that can help you make the right brained decision. Another great website we found is greenbuildingadvisor.com. All kinds of ideas for products you can use to build green or how to build green, details drawings, plans, it’s a great resource.
Hey, now it’s time for our Best New Product of the week. You probably know that you can lower your energy bills and still be comfortable with proper insulation, but I bet you didn’t know that the Sunday paper can also help you to do this. This is GreenFiber cellulose insulation, and it’s made from 85% recycled materials, including your old newspaper. And it takes 10% less energy to make.
It can be used in attics, floors and walls and it’s blown in organic sprays into a space to completely seal any cavities. That’s a lot of Sunday papers. The natural fibers are specially treated for flame resistant, and no toxic air admissions are released during the manufacturing process. One of the benefits of GreenFiber is that it works great as a sound barrier. It really is pretty easy to spray into place. But I admit it is a little messy, so I highly recommend wearing a dust mask and a pair of goggles.
But for about 10 bucks a block, it is a durable, safe, and cost effective way to insulate and a way to reduce damage to our environment. After the break, and interesting take on the future of green. Boy, we’re finding some great things here at the Greenbuild Expo here in Boston. One important element of successful green building is using sustainable materials. Materials that will last a long, long time. Here’s a good example, JELD-WEN Windows and Doors has developed a wood called AuraLast that lasts 20 years, guaranteed, against rot and termites. That’s a great way to create a product that won’t end up in a landfill very soon. And because of this type of effort and their public awareness campaign, JELD-WEN has won the President’s Award on the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
Here’s another good example here. This is made from western juniper. And originally, and for years and years, Juniper has been a very invasive type of material, they’ve even burned up the fields or used this as fence post. I think this looks a heck of a lot better than a fence post.
While Allen was hiking the floor, he came across a group of Connecticut middle school students giving a presentation. The kids had used Autodesk software to design a very impressive school project. So the company brought them to Boston to demonstrate what’s possible in green design when you’re really thinking outside the box.
I want you to meet some new friends of mine, and they are going to test me on this, can I just do the four stooges or something like that? No, this is Emily, Halley, Allie and Alex. They were part of a student design competition for the school of the future. Let’s listen to what they did.
This contest is supposed to make kids more interested in the future and like the schools and design processes, the green technology mostly. We got a lot of the ideas like from the Internet and from resources like ring resources. It was just us brainstorming ideas and thinking about what we can do. It was pretty much our presentation that we had to present in front of lots of different companies and I say we had to write a certain amount of words and then they’d read it so they’d have an outline of what you did. I was in charge of building the model that I took what Halley did read it, and put it on basically aboard and made it green. I also design some of the Hydra Gutter and some of the alternative energy gutter systems, which can be applied for school use electricity less and less often.
Alex’s gutter mounted water wheel is not in mass production yet. But I am finding some very interesting water wise products at the show, like a gridded rooftop planter system that eliminates much of the water runoff from flat roofs. But, if it has to run off, it will catch it and use it with this residential rainwater harvesting system, from Bushman. Or for more conventional applications there are a huge variety of water efficient fixtures that can easily become a part of any home.
Now we’ve already seen a lot here today. And of course one of the reasons I come to the shows is to see all the new stuff. Now, something that’s really not all that new, something you’ve heard both Danny and me talk about is the low-flow toilet. And I can tell you this we talk and talk about this all we walk. But you know the old saying, actions speak louder than words.
Here in the Kohler booth, we have a great demonstration. I want to show you this, because it’s very important. If your home was built say before 1994, you have one of these old monsters in it. This is a 3½ gallon toilet right here. Beautiful color. Don’t you remember this color? I think I had appliances this color at one point. What’s this though, right down here on a flush this one, 3½ gallons coming out. The big misconception, when it came to low-flow toilets, that’s not an easy word to say, is that they were not that effective.
This is the Samurai model, I have to tell you this, I have this very model in my home. It is just as effective. This is a 1.2-gallon model. Look at the difference. You can compare them right there. This is how much water you can save. You’re talking about up to 20,000 gallons of water every year, just by making a switch.
Now, that alone may not be that impressive. I think it is, but check this out. Up to 100 million of these models the 3½-gallon are still in use today. Multiply that by 22,000 gallons that would save a lot of water. I love the show, it’s all about thinking green. Speaking of, here’s Danny with today’s Thinking Green. Keeping the air green is one of the many goals of environmentalists. Now, you may not be able to do much to affect the air outside. But you can make a big difference in the air quality inside your home, by getting rid of as many chemical cleaners as possible. Here are a couple of truly green ways to keep your home spic and span, save a little money and keep the air clean.
Vinegar is one of the most natural all purpose cleaners you can use. Fill a clean spray bottle of the solution with one part vinegar and one part water, and you’ve got a cleaner that will also disinfect and deodorize most areas of your home. Another idea is to use lemon juice. It easily dissolves so scum and water deposits. And you can mix it with a little baking soda to make a cleaning paste. You can also cut a lemon in half, sprinkle a little baking soda on it, and use it as a scrub brush. After a couple days of walking around the Greenbuild Expo, I think it’s safe to say that this building, the green building is not a trend at all.
Oh, no. Think about it, trends and fads are here today and gone tomorrow. I don’t think that’s the case here.
And a good thing. Most of the people that are attending the show are builders, remodelers, designers, and architects. So next time you’re playing a renovation, or building a new home, you’ll have some professionals that are knowledgeable in green building to choose from.
Now what’s encouraging to Danny and me is that so many homeowners today are not only asking for green, but they’re insisting on it.
And I hope you enjoyed seeing a little glimpse of what’s taking place in the world of green building. And of course we have a lot more information on our website dannylipford.com. From Allen and I, we’ll see you soon.
