What's the best way to drive creativity, to push the boundaries of excellence, to raise the bar in any field? Well, it's usually by engaging our competitive spirits, with skills pitted against skills, vying for first place and the respect and adulation of one's peers. Recognizing and encouraging passion helps, too. Well, not only is this true in the world of sports and the performing arts, it's also true of architecture and design as it pertains to green building. Maybe this is not such … [Read more...]
Green Building Business Tips for Contractors Article
August 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Thanks to @SerenArch on Twitter, I found this very informative article that outlines some best practices when it comes to understanding the business side of green building. The article is taken from the Construction Today website. As the article itself states, green building is often presented in the media as the next big thing in the construction industry. It's certainly struck me that way, and I've made that pretty apparent on this blog. Yet, some practical points for the benefit of firms … [Read more...]
Marketing Green Products: Green-Colored Glasses?
April 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
When it comes to sustainability, green building, and green products, a major currency is credibility. We at BuildDirect are very conscious of this. Sure, we sell bamboo flooring, cork flooring, tile made from recycled materials, and other products which have been defined as green building materials, and for good reason. But even still, we're on a path where we're always looking to expand our knowledge, and to add our voice to the conversation from where we are. That what this blog is for. Yet, … [Read more...]
Green Built Environment: Political Will Needed
December 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment
The Pew Center report on a Climate Friendly Built Environment – to which I referred in my previous posting – makes an emphatic assertion for the needed political will to act now in three policy areas. It correctly observes that the building industry’s fragmentation makes decision making almost impossible for comprehensive solutions to environmental problems. The report notes: “An integrated approach is needed to address GHG emissions from the U.S. building sector—one … [Read more...]
Carbon Offsets for U.S. Green Affordable Housing
November 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Duh! This news releaselooks like an afterthought by the organizers of recent USGBC Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held in Boston November 19 – 21. The release, dated November 24, 2008, looks forward to the Conference which ended three days earlier. Too bad, because the news content is interesting. Attendees at this year’s Greenbuild can assuage their guilt over carbon emissions from their travel and energy used at the conference. Enterprise Green Communities, which sponsors … [Read more...]
Green Building Programs In USA
November 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Did you know that there are over 90 green building programs in the USA? Or that the residential buildings use more energy than the automotive sector? Here’s a video that talks briefly about these issues and makes the point that green building, particularly in the residential sector, can make a huge difference to America’s energy consumption. I’ve talked about LEED and the NAHB programs in previous postings, and I’ll get into some others that are now emerging in the … [Read more...]
Green Building Councils Overreach Mandate
October 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment
As a vendor of a building material certified by the FSC. BuildDirect qualifies according toFSC rules to advertise the product (Kontiki Vifah Eucalyptus Deck Tile) with the FSC logo and name. BuildDirect satisfies all the requirements for FSC chain of custody regulations for using the FSC logo in its advertising, and the folks at FSC have given the green light to BuildDirect to promote its product. The rub comes from the CaGBC who says that a purchaser of the product from BuildDirect can’t … [Read more...]
LEED and FSC: Too Close for Comfort
October 30, 2008 By 1 Comment
LEED is currently the best known acronym in the green building industry. As a branding success, its meteoric rise is nothing if not phenomenal. What does it stand for? Unless you’re a LEED accredited professional (LEED AP), you probably can’t remember (and don’t care) if it stands for Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design or if it’s the other way around, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (it’s the latter). The important thing is that it’s the major certification needed … [Read more...]
NWFA’s Gate-to-Gate is Short Life Cycle in Forest Products
October 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Following the National Wood Flooring Association’s promise to deliver a life cycle assessment of hardwood flooring, and leading consumers to believe that this would be a cradle to grave assessment, the NWFA sponsored a report that was not anywhere near what its title implied. The “Life Cycle Inventory of Solid Strip Hardwood Flooring in the Northeastern United States”, produced by the Consortium for Research for Renewal Industrial Materials (CORRIM), was conducted by a reputable group … [Read more...]
NWFA Press Releases: Examples of Hype in Enviromental Claims
October 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment
The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) likes to issue press releases with headlines like the following: Real Wood Floors: Wood Flooring is Green (March 14, 2008) Wood Floors Are Green (June 13, 2008) Of course, the NWFA is in the business of promoting wood flooring, so one might expect a little spin on the environmental benefits of their product. However, this is an age of sophisticated consumers and the NWFA would be well advised to tone down its rhetoric and put some … [Read more...]
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