Recently in Building Products for Remodeling Category
Homebuyers
today are increasingly concerned about the indoor air quality of their
homes.
Issues like mold, radon, carbon monoxide, and toxic chemicals have received greater attention than ever as poor indoor air quality has been linked to a host of health problems.
To address these concerns, builders can employ a variety of construction practices and technologies to decrease the risk of poor indoor air quality in their new homes.
EPA created the Indoor Air Package to help builders meet the growing consumer preference for homes with improved indoor air quality and energy efficiency. By constructing homes that meet EPA's stringent specifications, forward-thinking builders can distinguish themselves by offering homes that have earned this designation.
EPA's Indoor Air Package specifications were developed based on best available science and information about risks associated with indoor air quality problems, and balanced with practical issues of cost, builder production process compatibility, and enforceability. The initial specifications were piloted in several cities and revised based on input from the field.
Energy Star Builders Offer the Indoor Air PackageThe Indoor Air Package is now available for all interested ENERGY STAR Partners. The current Indoor Air Package specifications
The SOLo Lounge Table might change the working habits of teckies. Built into the surface of this roll-around table are solar panels that charge up its internal battery and power your devices. It can connect to a variety of devices and there’s a drawer for storing and charging your gadgets. The SOLo alse features Bluetooth connectivity for system monitoring in addition to the included System Monitor display/device. More info here.
By Julie Gevrenov, environmental engineer with EPA
Recycling markets for post-consumer asphalt roofing shingles (tear-offs) are starting to gain ground. The blossoming green building movement, emphasis on environmental stewardship, increasing oil prices, aggregate shortages, efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, state recycling programs and regulations, local recycling ordinances, increasing tipping (disposal) fees and difficulty choosing sites for new landfills are some drivers pushing recycling of construction and demolition materials into the limelight.
In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Resource Conservation Challenge is drawing attention to reuse and recycling of construction and demolition materials.
According to the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), an estimated 11 million tons of asphalt roofing shingles are generated annually in the U.S., and some estimates are higher. Compared with other construction and demolition materials such as metal, concrete and asphalt pavement, only a small percentage of asphalt shingle tear-offs are currently recovered, leaving significant opportunity to use recycled asphalt shingles.
The primary use for recycled asphalt shingles in the U.S. is as a road building material, particularly for use in hot-mix asphalt. Other uses of recycled asphalt shingles include cold-mix asphalt, cold patch, road base, dust control, mulch, temporary roads and fuel.
The benefits derived from using recycled asphalt shingles stem from the
recovery of asphalt cement and mineral aggregate components of
shingles, each of which represent about 20 to 40 percent of a shingle's
weight. With the price of oil at an all-time high and aggregate
shortages being experienced in some areas of the U.S., there are
obvious reasons to investigate opportunities to recycle shingles.
Check out www.shinglerecycling.org, a comprehensive clearinghouse of information about the subject.
The Web site includes overviews of shingle recycling in each state (including state regulations, environmental agency contacts and all known recyclers), economics of recycling, markets for recycled shingles, pertinent environmental regulations, worker health and safety issues, a library of literature on shingle recycling and current research.
Environmental issues
Environmental Issues Associated with Asphalt Shingle Recycling
discusses two main environmental concerns: asbestos, which occasionally
is found in the fiberglass or felt mat of shingles, and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which occur naturally in asphalt
products.
Best practices
Recycling Tear-Off Asphalt Shingles: Best Practices Guide provides a starting point for shingle recyclers to plan a new operation or improve an existing one. It focuses on business planning, recycling operations, marketing strategies and compliance recommendations and identifies three major best practices, each with a number of supporting points:
- Recyclers should implement quality-assurance and -control systems to carefully control the quality of their incoming supplies of shingle tear-off materials.
- Recyclers' end product, recycled asphalt shingles, should meet or exceed material specifications of their end markets.
- A recycler's business plan should include a marketing plan based on multiple outlets for recycled asphalt shingles.
Shingles are heavy, making transportation a limiting factor in any recycling project. The recycling tipping fee must be cost-competitive for a roofing contractor to choose recycling instead of disposal. Likewise, a recycled asphalt shingle product must be priced competitively because end-users are more likely to choose a nontraditional or recycled product if it will save them money. And finally, preference for using recycled asphalt shingles varies among hot-mix asphalt plant operators.
Materials specifications also are critical for market development. State department of transportation (DOT) specifications often are relied on by county and local public works engineers and used on private jobs and DOT projects. However, only a handful of state DOTs (Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina) currently have specifications for using recycled asphalt shingles in hot-mix asphalt.
Other states (Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia) have specifications for the use of manufacturers' shingle scrap in hot-mix asphalt though the volume of available manufacturers' scrap is insignificant compared with the volume of shingle tear-offs generated annually.
How to Recycle Shingles in YOUR State
Recycling presents great environmental stewardship opportunities for
the roofing industry. If you are interested in recycling asphalt
shingles, research the resources currently available in your state,
including state specifications.
You can find this information and key contacts for your state agencies at www.shinglerecycling.org under the State Experience section. Your state regulator will help you learn what can be recycled in your state and how to do it. If you want to start a recycling operation, don't learn by trial and error—you can refer to the best practices guide to glean the cumulative wisdom of the pioneers of asphalt shingle recycling.
Remember, you may be able to reduce your disposal costs by keeping asphalt shingles and other construction and demolition materials out of landfills. And substituting reused or recycled materials in place of virgin materials can result in substantial energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reductions—and you can make that happen.
Shingle Recycling Business Opportunity
So where's the business opportunity in shingle recycling? On the front end, you obviously can save money by recycling if a recycling tipping fee compares favorably with costs of local landfill tipping fees.
But what about recyclers and end-users, particularly hot-mix asphalt
producers? In general, most private companies don't want to discuss
their operations, and because local conditions such as tipping fees
vary widely, no single example can be representative of all operations.
But a hypothetical, conservative scenario can help reveal some information.
Assuming the asphalt shingles torn off a roof system are 20 percent asphalt, the price of liquid asphalt cement is $300 per ton and about 75 percent of the asphalt in the shingles is "available" to replace virgin asphalt cement in hot-mix asphalt, then the value of the asphalt in the recycled asphalt shingles is about $45 per ton.
If we assume a recycler and hot-mix asphalt producer split the value of the recycled asphalt shingles, $22.50 per ton is paid to the recycler less about $15 per ton for processing and transportation costs, leaving the recycler with about a $7.50 per ton profit on the processing side of the operation alone.
Profitable recycling ventures need revenue from their tipping fees as well as from the sale of recycled materials. If a recycler sets his tipping fee for asphalt shingle tear-offs at 50 to 75 percent of the landfill tipping fee, there is a financial incentive for people to recycle.
EARN: Sale of Recycled Materials
Presorting Shingles
Recycling Tear-Off Asphalt Shingles: Best Practices Guide (which is available for FREE at www.shinglerecycling.org)
explains that presorting can be done quite reasonably by roofing
contractors—the goal isn't to remove every last nail from the shingles
but to keep wood, plastic and other debris in separate piles.
With the
price of petroleum-based products at an all-time high, this
conservative, back-of-the-envelope estimate shows that shingle
recycling can be quite profitable.
ROI for Roofing, Recycling and Paving
And the economic and environmental
benefits are shared across the roofing, recycling and paving
industries.
Julie Gevrenov is an environmental engineer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 5 office in Chicago.
READ MORE: Professional Roofing
Dual flush toilets have become standards in Europe and other countries concerned about their water supply. Unfortunately, water conservation is undervalued in the US. But that is changing, especially where drought is forcing water outages and increasing rates. Gerber provides high efficiency toilets, sinks and certified water efficient solutions. Gerber offers vitreous china pedestal and drop-in lavatories designed to complement their toilets, bringing together classic looks and powerful technology. The advanced HP2 and XP3 high-performance flushing systems will virtually eliminate the aggravation and cost of warranty callbacks from second-class toilets that clog or require a “double flush.”
Abigail™ faucets, and Viper™ toilets with Gerber's HP2 flushing system, which delivers performance that’s more than double the industry standard! Gerber provides you with the style and quality you need to give homebuyers who are stepping up from their first home the sense that they’ve truly arrived.
Gerber offers water-saving, sensor-operated electronic faucets designed to prevent waste by automatically shutting off water flow. Deckmount choices include gooseneck or crescent spouts, as well as, models
equipped with an in-deck mixer, which permits user control of water temperature.
Ultra Flush® 1.1 gpf toilet models are available to deliver the ultimate in high-efficiency water conservation.
They can flush 1,000 grams of bulk waste while using 30% less water than standard 1.6 gpf toilets. In addition to Ultra Flush 1.1 gpf units, Ultra Dual- Flush™ models are also available, with a dual-action lever that permits 1.6 gpf or high-efficiency 1.1 gpf operation.
Ultra Dual-Flush™ provides professional performance while conserving natural resources. It flushes up to 1,250 grams of bulk waste per 1.6 gallon flush or 1,000 grams per 1.1 gallon flush. 1.1 gallon flush uses 30% les water over conventional 1.6 gallon toilets. The Pressure-Assist system uses pressure from the incoming supply line to foce 1.6 gallons of work out of 1.1 gallons of water. It installs like standard gravity toilest -- no special connections are required.
Gerber products are sold exclusively to the plumbing professional.
Gerber Plumbing Fixtures corporate offices are located in Woodridge, Illinois. Gerber has manufacturing facilities in Kokomo, IN, Laredo, TX, Montreal, Canada. Shenzhen, China and Weifang, China.
Gerber
Designed in Australia, where water conservation is extremely important, the HET dual flush water-saving toilet uses, at most, 1.6 gallons per flush. “Dual flush” means that this toilet has two different types of flushing. One for liquids (or #1), which is only .8 gallon of water, and one for solids ( like #2, c’mon let’s be grownups about this!), which is only 1.6 gallons of water. At its biggest flush, this water still uses less than the standard new toilets, which use 1.8 gallons of water per flush. That’s up to 50-75% savings!
Remodeling doesn't always mean ripping out walls -- if you think green, you can rip out utility costs!
Forest Conservation Program
SCS developed its Forest Conservation Program in 1991 and has since
emerged as a leading certifier of forest management operations and wood
product manufacturers. In 1996, the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited SCS as a certification
body, enabling it to evaluate forests according to the FSC Principles
and Criteria for Forest Stewardship. Through a well-developed network of regional
representatives and contractors, SCS offers timely and cost-effective
certification services around the world.Over
the past 12 years, SCS
has certified more than
23.8 million acres of
natural
forests and plantations
in North, Central, and
South America, Europe,
Asia, and New Zealand
through its
Forest
Management Certification division.
Certified operations
have ranged from small
100-hectare parcels
to 2.5-million hectare
forests. SCS also offers
a group certification
format, such as certified
resource managers, to
lower certification
costs for small landowners.
For each certification
audit, an interdisciplinary
evaluation team of experts
in forest science and
management is assembled
.
Since the mid-1990s, SCS has also offered FSC certification to wood
product manufacturers. Our Chain-of-Custody
Certification division has audited and certified over 500 manufacturers,
distributors, and retailers who make or carry certified wood products.
SCS has issued chain-of-custody certificates in over 29 countries spanning
5 continents.
In
addition to FSC certification,
SCS offers an independent,
non-aligned certification
program for
clients seeking an alternative
to existing, potentially
polarizing certification
schemes. SCS also offers
wood product manufacturers
the option of pursuing single
attribute claims (e.g.,
recycled, recovered,
salvaged wood, etc.)
certification.
Chain-of-Custody Certification
Before a product may carry an FSC or SCS label, all stages of the production, distribution, and sale of the product must be independently evaluated. Wood must be tracked from the certified forest to the finished product.
Through our Chain-of-Custody Certification Division, SCS certifies wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, who handle wood coming from forests certified according to FSC standards. For FSC Chain-of-Custody certification SCS also provides group and multi-site certification. To become certified, these entities must meet six principles of chain-of-custody, such as maintaining adequate inventory control systems that allow for separation and identification of certified product.
SCS requires the tracking of certified products throughout the production process to ensure the validity of the certified claim. If a wood product carries the FSC or SCS logo, a customer can have confidence that it was made from wood harvested from an FSC-certified forest.
LINK to Forest Conservation Program CERTIFIED CLIENTSFor a searchable database of all forests and products certified according to the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council, visit the Forest Certification Resource Center.
CONTACT:
Scientific Certification Systems
2200 Powell Street, Suite 725
Emeryville, California 94608
Phone: 510-452-8000
http://www.scscertified.com/forestry/index.html
Whether you are building a new facility or retrofitting a building, finding good quality, green building materials is part of the upgrading process...and part of certification programs such as Energy Star, California standards, Federal Environmentally Preferable Purchasing or USGBC's LEED program.
Measuring Environmental Claims with Scientific Certification Systems (SCS)
Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) is one of the leading product and process certification audit providers. They monitor, measure and certify a wide range of environmental products for industries including
- Food & Agriculture
- Eco Products (Building)
- Forestry
- Fisheries
- Floral
The online product directory of green building products includes broad categories, sub-categories and product types from more than one hundred manufacturers and classified by certification programs and conformance to the leading regulatory and measurement programs. Currently certified products include office furniture systems, components, and seating, building materials, carpet and rug, hard surface flooring, paints, finishes, wood products, and cleaning products, among others.
Categories of eco products include:
- Adhesives/Sealants
- Building and Construction Products
- Flooring
- Furniture
- Home and Garden
- Paint Products
- Paints and Coatings
- Plastics
- Processes
- Reclamation Program
- Rock
- Textiles and Fiber
- Treatment
Certification Programs covered include:
- Biodegradable
- Environmentally Preferable Product
- FloorScore
- Indoor avantage
- indoor Advantage Gold
- No Added Formaldehyde
- No Added Urea Formaldehyde
- Pollution Prevention
- Reclamation Program
- Recycled or Reclaimed Content
- Salvaged Wood
- SCS Sustainable Choice
Conformance list includes:
- CA Section 01350
- CHPS EQ 2.2 (CA Section 01350)
- LEED EQ 4.2 + CHPS EQ 2.2
- LEED EQ 4.3 + CHPS EQ 2.2
- LEED EQ 4.5 (ANSI/BIFMA Furniture Emissions Standards)
- LEED EQ 4.5 +CHPS EQ 2.2 (ANSI/BIFMA Furniture Emissions Standards
- LEED MR 4.1 or 4.2

