Two net-zero energy developments, built with homes that generate as much energy as they use, are being built with insulated concrete forms to ensure energy efficiency and comfort. Anthony Aebi, the founder and CEO of Greenhill Contracting, Inc has a single goal for his contracting company: to build the next generation of homes that achieve the highest level of energy performance, so high that the annual outcome is net zero energy usage. Most importantly, he wanted to build the home at a cost-per-square-foot under $100. Aebi is achieving his goal with his two developments: Green Acres, the first Net Zero Energy community under development in Hudson Valley, New York, and The Preserve at Mountain Vista in New Paltz, New York. Net zero energy is defined as a home that produces more energy that it consumes in a year. In order to achieve a net-zero energy home, Aebi had to utilize products that would enable him to construct homes with a high standard of sustainability. He selected Fox Blocks Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) for the foundation and walls in each of the 1,600 – 2,600-square-feet homes, which also include a 1,000-square-feet unfinished space. Fox Blocks ICF is a solid choice for building contractors looking to maximize energy efficiency. The Fox Blocks series wall system provides an extremely energy efficient building envelope offering superior strength, sound, air quality, and well insulated walls. Fox Blocks ICF is a solid monolithic concrete wall and withstands the worst of rainstorms, fires, and high winds. In addition, ICFs contribute to sustainable construction in many other ways including the sound dampening of the concrete and foam, which is ideal for protection from urban noise and also is a barrier to insects such as termites. ICF homes, unlike traditional American homes are built to last hundreds of years.

A brand new Audi dealership was recently completed in Natick, MA. This ultra-modern commercial structure features a design that incorporates many different elements. Glass, steel, and stone work together to create a sleek contemporary design. The clean, straight lines in the metal and windows are carried through to the Boston Blend Strips stone which was used on the retaining walls. The sleekness of the glass is contrasted by the rough, organic surface of the natural stone. Boston Blend Strips is one of our newest, and most contemporary shapes. Each piece of stone is 1.5 inches in height, 1.0 inch thick, random lengths, and sawn 4 sides with a textured face. Strips is the best shape to use on a modern project with clean, straight lines. It is available in all 6 colors: Boston Blend, Greenwich Gray, Colonial Tan, Vineyard Granite, Newport Mist, and Nantucket Brown making it possible to fit perfectly into any design scheme.

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton today announced that its Cooper Lighting division has rolled out its new light-emitting diode (LED) WaveStream™ technology with the introduction of the Metalux Encounter™ ambient luminaires. Making LED products available for a wide range of applications, these cost-effective solutions are designed to increase energy savings while providing superior optical performance and brightness control. The Lighting division’s new proprietary WaveStream technology features AccuAim™ advanced optics that provide precisely directed light output, control and optimal distributions tailored to each fixture and application. The highly efficient WaveStream LED technology delivers a uniform, glare-free, soft light for superior visual comfort. Currently, the Lighting division’s WaveStream technology is available for the Metalux Encounter series of ambient luminaires. Offering a thin and clean contemporary styling, the Metalux Encounter LED series provides an unrivaled freedom of design and creativity, offering specifers and customers a new level of energy efficiency, optical performance and brightness control at an affordable price. These new fixtures are an ideal solution for commercial office spaces, schools, hospitals, retail and other indoor ambient applications.

CULVER CITY, California — Glass Apps is pleased to announce the addition of UL Listed Switchable glass to their product lineup, the only UL Listed 110v plug and play switchable glass solution in the industry! With Glass Apps 110v UL Listed Switchable glass, customers will: • Save on installation costs by eliminating the need for converter boxes and additional electrician labor time. • Avoid costly delays with local code authorities. • Have assurance that you are using the safest possible laminated switchable glass solution. Already know for having the highest clarity products, the only dimmable solution, the shortest lead-times, and fanatical customer service, UL is just another great advantage of choosing Glass Apps for all your Switchable Glass needs! Copy the link to view the listing: http://redirect.aecdaily.com/s18122/database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/showpage.html?name=IYQX.E352737&ccnshorttitle=Furnishings,+Household+and+Commercial&objid=1083102333&cfgid=1073741824&version=versionless&parent_id=1073988562&sequence=1

KALAMAZOO, Michigan—Landscape Forms is pleased to introduce Olithas, an outdoor table and bench with a thin fluted MeldStone™ top and seat of striking form and elegance that reimagines what cast concrete can be. The Olithas collection is part of Terrace Life, Landscape Forms’ lifestyle furniture designed specifically for terraces, rooftop gardens and other private and protected spaces distinguished by their unique ambience and quality of social life. The name Olithas combines the Greek word “Lithos” meaning stone, and the Spanish word “Olita” meaning tiny wave to describe the fluted form, based on the classical column, of this graceful outdoor furniture. Table tops and seats are supported by a handsome geometric tubular steel base. “Olithas is an exercise in making cast concrete appear to be light and fluid, like waves,” explains Landscape Forms Senior Designer Efrain Velez. “We wanted to pay homage to classical and modern architecture and create furniture that is appropriate for many architectural contexts -- to achieve an elegant integration, through design, of common architectural materials at furniture scale.” Olithas has already demonstrated success as winner of a prestigious 2013 Red Dot Award, the European honor bestowed on exceptional international design. As part of Terrace Life, Olithas is designed with architects and interior designers in mind. In form, detail and elegant informality it sets a new standard for furniture designed for spaces at the intersection of architecture and nature. Olithas benches and tables create a magnetic field for active outdoor living; with a welcoming attitude and free spirit that encourages family gathering, after-hours mingling, eating and drinking, celebrating and relaxing. Olithas brings together the new Landscape Forms focus on lifestyle furniture for more intimate, high-design outdoor spaces with its capability in cast concrete, following acquisition of MeldUSA. The fluted pattern on the underside of Olithas’ concrete tops and seats provide a universal language, structure and reinforcement. These surfaces are made of MeldStone™ Ultra High Performance Concrete, a technology that enables the molding of thin strong slabs. The geometric steel bases of seamless precision-welded and finished tubing provide robust support but sit lightly within the landscape, and the radius of the base tubing fits the wave pattern of surfaces to provide a complete integration of form. Table and bench tops and bases are joined together by jewel-like connectors of cast stainless steel. A gentle upward curve at the back of bench is ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing. The 64” table and bench easily accommodate up to six adults while taking up minimal visual space. Olithas is strong, durable, comfortable and manufactured in the US. The concrete used in its manufacture is a natural material that provides sustainable longevity and can be ground and reused for industrial applications at the end of product life. The steel contains at least 60% recycled content and is fully recyclable.

Company Expands Popular Ultra High-Efficiency 1.0 gpf Toilet Line that Harnesses Patented Double Cyclone Flushing System with Elegant New One-Piece Performance-Design (Morrow, GA) April 19, 2013 – TOTO, the global leader in high-performance toilets, expands its ultra high-efficiency toilet (UHET) line with the beautiful new one-piece UltraMax II 1G. This elegant performance-design – with its long-view global design aesthetic and clean, simple lines that will grace any bathroom environment for years to come – exemplifies TOTO’s People-Centered design philosophy. People-First Innovation Innovation designed to meet people’s real world needs is serious business at TOTO, and consumers’ skyrocketing demand for water-saving toilets highlights the company’s position as a global technology leader. Unfortunately, not all high efficiency toilets effectively remove the full range of waste – solid, liquid, and paper – making them a poor investment for homeowners. However, TOTO has developed high-efficiency flushing technologies that deliver substantial water savings and outstanding, balanced flushing across the entire spectrum of waste. Toilets with TOTO’s patented Double Cyclone flushing technology exemplify this, distinguishing them from many other so-called high-efficiency toilets that do not perform across the varied types of waste. Ultra High-Efficiency 1.0 gpf Double Cyclone Flushing System Like the Drake II 1G before it, the new UltraMax II 1G – with its proven Double Cyclone technology – represents the continued evolution of TOTO’s high-efficiency toilets. Already a market leader in balanced flushing at 1.28 gpf, TOTO now delivers ultra-high-efficiency flushing using only one gallon of water. TOTO’s Double Cyclone technology features two water jets, instead of rim holes. These jets, positioned on each side of the bowl’s interior deliver powerful swirls of water. The flushing action is strong and all types of waste are flushed away effectively. The bowl and rim are cleansed thoroughly with one flush. All this is achieved using TOTO’s gravity-based Double Cyclone technology. This means that consumers can now get well-balanced, powerful, and ultra-high-efficiency 1.0 gpf flushing without having to buy a toilet that uses complex pressure-assist technology – thereby avoiding the considerable noise of pressure-assist toilets’ flushing as well as their highly pressurized internal tanks. This puts the TOTO ultra high-efficiency toilets in a class by themselves.

Earth Shield® Solvent-based Waterstop Primer has been discontinued due to increased regulations concerning the V.O.C. (volatile organic content) of the solvent within. We replaced the product with a water-based adhesive primer that actually works better, but costs significantly more money (approximately three times the cost). We know this price increase will be difficult for our customers to bear, as it was for us as well as a raw material, but we assure you we have done everything possible to keep the product affordable as possible. We believe the pricing will still be competitive with other manufacturer’s formulations of water-based primer. Functionally, the product is a big improvement over the solvent-based product it replaced, as it is an adhesive as well as a surface prep (the old primer was just a tacky surface prep). This new primer can be used in both vertical and horizontal applications; whereas, the old could only be used horizontally. Our sincere apologies on this massive price increase, but the Clean Air Act made us discontinue the old, solvent-based (and cheap) primer, and switch to the eco-friendly (and expensive) water-based primer.

LONDON, August 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- • The global sustainable construction event will connect industry professionals to help them network, learn and discover new products and innovative solutions • Ecobuild regularly attracts 1,000 exhibitors and 45,000 visitors from 120 countries • Ecobuild 2014 takes place at Excel London on Tuesday 4 to Thursday 6 March As Ecobuild gears up to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the organizer of the event, UBM Live Built Environment, is delighted to announce some of the new plans for 2014. Each year Ecobuild hosts the most comprehensive showcase of sustainable construction products in the world. It provides a platform for businesses representing the entire spectrum of sustainable construction products for new build, refurbishment, residential, commercial and industrial projects. Ecobuild brings together the entire supply chain in order to focus on the green agenda and help them realize the vision of delivering a more sustainable built environment.

Advanced products help building achieve LEED Platinum certification PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) announced that the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, which is LEED(R) Platinum certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, was constructed with SOLARBAN(R) 70XL STARPHIRE(R) glass, CORAFLON(R) ADS (Air-Dried System) coatings, PURE PERFORMANCE(R) paint and SEAL GRIP(R) priming products. All four products are part of the ECOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS FROM PPG(TM) portfolio, a global selection of products engineered to reduce energy consumption, protect the environment and provide other “green” benefits. Solarban 70XL Starphire glass, one the industry’s highest-performing solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) glass products, is part of an integrated energy-management system that incorporates high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, solar power for electricity and hot water, exterior overhangs, and a green roof system that reduces the center’s heating and cooling demands. Made with a triple-silver coating on a low-iron glass substrate, Solarban 70XL Starphire glass offers an exceptional balance of transparency and solar control. In a standard 1-inch insulating glass unit, it has visible light transmittance (VLT) of 64 percent and a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.27, which produces a light-to-solar-gain (LSG) ratio of 2.37. Although Solarban 70XL Starphire glass was specified throughout the center, it is featured most prominently in Freedom Hall, the building’s central orientation point, which is topped by a 67-foot-high, 50-by-50-foot glass and limestone lantern. Solarban 70XL glass enables daylight from the lantern to flood the core of the building and to appear as a soft-glowing beacon that is visible from Dallas at night. Seal Grip priming products and Pure Performance paint by the PPG PITTSBURGH PAINTS(R) brand are featured in the center’s replica Oval Office, where they cover the walls, millwork and trim. Pure Performance paint is a zero-volatile organic compound (VOC) premium latex interior paint. Seal Grip priming products meet VOC-compliance standards for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO), California Air Resources Board (CARB), Super-Compliant Architectural/Industrial (AIM) Coatings and the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC). Coraflon ADS coatings color and protect the center’s exterior metal trim and doors. These next-generation low-VOC coatings retain color and gloss longer than conventional coating systems, and they resist chalking and repel surface dirt to reduce cleaning cycles.

Expo Build China 2014, China's leading exhibition for premium building materials, is scheduled to take place from 31st March - 3rd April 2014 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre SHANGHAI, Aug. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As the world's second largest economy, China has huge demand for building materials for its rapid urbanisation process. In January and February 2013, nationwide building material markets achieved total sales revenue of approximately USD$23 billion. Shanghai, the most international city in mainland China, has a very active real estate market. In the first half of 2013, total investment in the Shanghai real estate market exceeded USD$32 billion, leading to a boom in building materials consumption in Shanghai and Eastern China.

KALAMAZOO, MI--Landscape Forms is proud to introduce Terrace Life, a new initiative that marks the company’s entry into lifestyle furniture for more intimate, social, high-design outdoor spaces. “Design professionals know Landscape Forms as a manufacturer of site furniture for streetscapes, parks and campuses,” explains company president Richard Heriford. “Now we are going to places we haven’t been before with furniture by award-winning architects and landscape architects designed specifically for terraces, rooftop gardens and other private and protected spaces. With Terrace Life we’re creating new modern classics.” Landscape Forms enjoys a reputation among design professionals for contemporary site furniture of exceptional design and quality. Terrace Life takes the design conversation to another realm of scale, proportion and finish with furniture that addresses lifestyle in social spaces on the other side of the glass door. Terrace Life includes collections of beautiful products tailored for spaces distinguished by their unique ambience and quality of social life. In outdoor rooms where old friends gather and new friends meet, where rejuvenation and celebration intersect, Terrace Life focuses on the experience in these spaces. It is designed to engender feelings of connection, camaraderie and the awareness of being in a special place. It is furniture that satisfies the senses and the emotions. Designed with architects and interior designers in mind, its beautiful forms, impeccable details and finishes and elegant informality set a new standard for furniture created for spaces at the transition between architecture and nature. Kirt Martin, Vice President of Design and Marketing for Landscape Forms, said about Terrace Life, “The body of knowledge, experience, craft and design this company has developed over 44 years culminates in this point of view—this is what we think it should be. Ultra precise. Ultra inspirational. And some of the best work we’ve ever done.” Terrace Life makes its debut with three new collections. Morrison, designed by Lionel Morrison, features a high table with stools and a broad, low sybaritic bench. It reflects the refined sensibility of the architect renowned for his serene modernist buildings. Olithas is a table and bench collection by architect/industrial designer Efrain Velez that draws on his grounding in classical and international style and his interest in innovative material technology. This 2013 Red Dot Award winner features thin-profile MeldStone™ surfaces of stunning form and elegance. The Chipman Collection from landscape architect Robert Chipman includes chairs and tables in standard and low heights. Slender, tapered forms come together in lyrical pieces that are light in visual appearance and in the aluminum of which they are made. More information about these collections will be released in the weeks ahead and more Terrace Life collections from inspired designers are in the pipeline. Now Terrace Life gives design professionals a new place to go for high-design furniture for special outdoor spaces. Looking for Landscape Forms? We’re out on the terrace.