If you were one of the estimated 20,000 people to attend Greenbuild 2016 in Los Angeles, but were stuck in the meeting rooms earning CEUs, chances are you may have missed a slew of product offerings and interesting news from the show floor. So we present a roundup of our top picks for recent under-the-radar products and news announcements, in brief.
Andersen Windows: Supporting Yellowstone National Park Projects
The window and door giant has been participating in various built projects within this American treasure, most notably a new Yellowstone Youth Campus that will house the park’s immersive youth program. The campus’s buildings, designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects, is aiming to achieve Living Building Challenge certification with the help of high-performance windows and insulation, PV arrays, wastewater treatment and reuse, nontoxic and low-VOC materials and furnishings, natural ventilation and various other passive measures. Andersen is not only donating windows and doors to this project, but $500,000 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation.
Rendering of the new Yellowstone Youth Campus designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects
To date, Andersen has already donated wood-clad windows to the park’s Lamar Buffalo Ranch and Mammoth Clinic renovations and Fibrex composite windows to the refurbished Paintbrush (aka Old Faithful Dorm, which is the first-ever LEED Platinum building in the National Park Service).
From left: Mammoth Clinic and Old Faithful Dorm in Yellowstone Park
ASSA ABLOY: IN220
The access-control and door hardware mega-company offers an array of impressive components that use significantly less electric power. Among them, the IN220 lock — under the Corbin Russwin and Sargent brands — leverages existing network infrastructure, drawing power over Ethernet. This ultimately can reduce standby power consumption by up to 76 percent compared to typical access-control locks. IN220 implements HID multiCLASS SE technology, which can support a range of credential types (key cards and fobs, for instance) and HID Mobile Access for use with mobile and Bluetooth devices.
© Frank Poole
ASSA ABLOY’s IN220 lock
Bark House: Bark Veneer
This rustic paneling, made of recycled tree bark, was used as interior wall coverings for the show’s KB Home ProjeKt installation. In addition to the bark veneer laminates and wall coverings, Bark House offers bark exterior siding and shingles, large-format bark panels, live-edge slabs, poles and twigs, fencing and custom fabrication.
Bark House wall coverings and exterior siding
Bionova: One Click LCA
Cloud-based construction software company Bionova launched its flagship product, One Click LCA, for the North American market during Greenbuild. What it purports to do is automatically calculate life cycle assessments from BIM with one click and in under an hour. Its intuitive web interface draws data from the project’s bill of materials and a comprehensive EPD database, then calculates and formats the results according to LEED LCA credit requirements — which may even result in four additional points.
Sampling Bionova’s One Click LCA
Draper: Graphic Shades
Known for shading products that provide excellent solar heat gain and glare control, Draper showcased its ability to customize the textiles with graphics enabling shades to pull double duty as signage or even decoration. The graphic shades are printed in-house using water-based latex inks that are UL ECOLOGO and Greenguard Gold certified as they’re odorless and require no special ventilation. The printing supplies themselves are recyclable after use, as are the cardboard containers that house the ink cartridges. Additionally, Draper offers a number of Greenguard Gold certified fabrics.
© Draper Inc.
Draper’s FlexShade with custom graphics
GSky Plant Systems: Versa Wall
Think of this system as an indoor paint-by-numbers or pixelated green wall. It utilizes individual plant pots held in wall trays for easy removal and maintenance. A closed system pumps water to the top, which in turn flows to the bottom from tray to tray without spillage. And the trays are designed to hold a measured amount of water for each individual plant to ensure a healthy wall. The company offers standard wood trim across the top, sides and bottom of the walls, though custom wood, metal or recessed options are also available.
GSky’s Versa Wall
Interface: GreenCircle Certified Environmental Facts Labels
Always trying to push the envelope in sustainable design, carpet company Interface debuted a new third-party certification from GreenCircle that reads much like a nutritional label on foods. These, however, list environmental and human health attributes as well as environmental footprints from the manufacturing process. Currently, the labels are attached to the company’s GlasBac and GlasBacRE products with Nylon 6 and 6,6 yarns.
Interface and GreenCircle’s newly launched Environmental Facts labels
Kirei: Geometry Tiles
Part of the company’s EchoPanel series, geometry tiles are simply peel-and-stick modules that can be used to compose visually striking, sound-dampening walls. The series comprises squares, triangles, pentagrams (new), hexagons and rectangles that come in 20 colors and offer an NRC rating of approximately 0.36.
Kirei’s eco-felt acoustic Geometry Tiles
MechoSystems: EcoVeil Sheer
The 100-percent polyester EcoVeil Sheer shade cloth boasts a myriad of green attributes: It’s PVC-free, Greenguard Gold certified and Cradle to Cradle Material Health Assessed at the Bronze Level, comes with an HPD and Declare label for material transparency — and is the first commercially available shade cloth to pass NFPA 701 without utilizing any chemical flame retardants. This enables it to meet the stringent Healthier Hospital Initiative Safer Chemicals Challenge. The textile — which is woven from pigmented yarns — sports a soft, natural appearance and can be specified in 1- or 3-percent openness in white, gray and neutral hues, making it ideal for just about any interior style.
MechoSystems’ EcoVeil Sheer
Porous Pave: Pour-in-Place Permeable Paving With Fine-Cut Chips
Chunky poured-in-place permeable paving can get unsightly, so to offer the same effective stormwater control with a refined, smoother appearance, Porous Pave now produces a composition of fine-cut 1/8- to ¼-inch recycled rubber chips. Two formulations for this product are available: XL is made with 50-percent rubber chips and 50-percent stone aggregate with a moisture-cured liquid binder, while XLS uses 100-percent rubber chips. All rubber is sourced from discarded tires reclaimed from landfills.
A comparison of Porous Pave’s original pour-in-place permeable paving (left) and the smoother version (right).
SageGlass: Installation Atop Iconic US Bank Tower Completed
A new hotspot designed by Tag Front, 71Above restaurant and bar is situated — obviously — on the 71st floor of the iconic US Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles. But with the dramatic 360-degree views of the city come solar heat gain and glare issues. SageGlass was thus brought onboard to supply nearly 3,000 square feet of electrochromic glass, enabling dynamic control of sunlight coming in without obstructing the views outward. Lucky show attendees were transported to view the recently opened venue and see the electronically tinted glass in action.
SageGlass’s installation at 71Above
© Lawrence Anderson Studio
Scranton Products: Eclipse
Bathroom stall partitions are normally meant to afford visual privacy, but poorly installed partitions can result in wide cracks between doors and panels. Scranton, the same company that makes the aptly named Hiny Hider stalls, now offers a no-sight-line system called Eclipse. Sporting a contemporary aesthetic, Eclipse partitions utilize innovative hinges, brackets and posts to eliminate the gaping cracks. The system is available in 55-, 62- or 72-inch heights in a range of materials, styles and colors.
Eclipse from Scranton Products
Walker Glass Company: AviProtek E
With completely glazed building designs becoming more of a norm these days, more frequent bird strikes are a legitimate concern. Help save the avian population while also saving energy with this product. AviProtek E is PPG’s Solarban low-e glass that’s been acid-etched by Walker with visual markers that help reduce the chance of bird collisions. Different etch patterns are available on Solarban 60, 67 or 70XL glass.
Walker Glass Company’s AviProtek E is bird-safe and low-E.