BuildingGreen, LLC announced its 2009 top 10 green building products at the U.S. Green Building Council’s national Greenbuild Conference in November.
“Our selections … represent a wide range of product types in many different application areas,” says Alex Wilson, BuildingGreen founder and executive editor. “This year’s list is particularly diverse, ranging from a recycled-content concrete block to a flywheel energy storage system for data centers, a mobile solar generator for jobsite power and an advanced modular classroom for schools.”
The 2009 top 10 green building products are as follows. Complete descriptions and contact information are provided on buildinggreen.com:
1. Pozzotive Plus CMUs (concrete masonry units) and concrete brick from Kingston Block
2. Thermafiber mineral wool insulation products
3. Invelope integrated wall insulation and rainscreen system
4. Baltix recycled and biobased-content office furniture
5. Project FROG modular green classroom
6. Rheem HP-50 heat-pump water heater
7. Convia energy-management infrastructure
8. Pentadyne GTX Flywheel energy storage
9. Silva Cell subsurface tree protection and stormwater system
10. Mobile Solar Power generator

Below, manufactured by Mobile Solar Power, this portable solar-powered generator integrates photovoltaic panels, inverters, charge controllers, and lead-acid storage batteries into a self-contained trailer that keeps all components other than the PV modules fully protected and out of the elements.

Building Green’s top 10 product selections, as in previous years, are drawn from new additions to the company’s GreenSpec product directory. About 200 product listings have been added to the GreenSpec database during the past year. “New products are being introduced all the time, making it a challenge for our staff to keep up,” says Wilson. “We also continue to come across products that have been on the market for years but were under our radar screen.” The GreenSpec database includes more than 2,100 product listings.

A major driver of the development of green products continues to be the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, which awards points for the use of certain product types, such as certified wood, or for the energy savings that green products can achieve. “Designers of LEED buildings are looking for green products, and manufacturers are responding,” says Wilson. In the online version of GreenSpec, users can find products organized by LEED credits as well as by building category and the Construction Specifications Institute MasterFormat structure.