Feature image: The LEED Platinum 10th Street Flats in Arlington, Virginia. Photo credit: Hoachlander Davis Photography.

Our building product and material choices have a significant impact on the world around us. This year’s top 10 products address some of our biggest challenges, covering everything from carbon and life cycle impacts to resilience.

(Note: Selections are based entirely on our expert opinions; we have no business relationships with any of these companies. All performance claims are from the manufacturers.)

ANP Lighting SiteLine Outdoor Luminaires

Poorly designed outdoor luminaires can waste energy; impact the lifecycles of plants, wildlife and humans; cause light pollution in the night sky; and create glare uncomfortable for pedestrians.

ANP Lighting’s SiteLine post-top luminaires are available with two LED types: powerful, high-performance LEDs for illuminating larger areas (such as roadways) and edge-lit LEDs for walkways or places where minimizing glare is important. Both styles have industry-leading energy efficiency and are available in a range of warmer and cooler colors.

These luminaires use the company’s unique clamping mechanism that has no visible hardware, and more than one can be mounted to the same pole. The company also offers SiteLine wall-mount options and bollards, providing a consistent look across an entire project.

Daikin Atmosphera Single Zone Mini-Split Heat Pump

The smaller “mini-split” heat pumps used to heat and cool residential and multifamily buildings applications are popular because they are energy-efficient and are helping pave the way toward an all-electric future running on renewable energy. They have one big carbon problem, though: They use refrigerants with global warming potentials (GWP) thousands of times that of CO2.

Daikin’s Atmosphera mini-split heat pump is the first available in North America that uses R32 refrigerant, which has a GWP of only 675. R32 also improves the performance of the equipment, you don’t need as much of it, and it it is easy to recapture and reclaim, further limiting the amount contributing to climate change. These energy-efficient heat pumps are available in a variety of sizes and are suitable for cold-weather applications.

Multiple SiteLine luminaires are mounted to the same pole at different heights. — Left: ANP Lighting SiteLine Outdoor Luminaires. Photo credit: ANP Lighting. Middle: Daikin Atmosphera R32 Heat Pump. Photo credit: Daikin. Right: Doors Unhinged products. Photo credit: Andrew Ellsworth/Doors Unhinged.

Atmosphera single-zone heat pump has one outdoor unit and one indoor unit. — Left: ANP Lighting SiteLine Outdoor Luminaires. Photo credit: ANP Lighting. Middle: Daikin Atmosphera R32 Heat Pump. Photo credit: Daikin. Right: Doors Unhinged products. Photo credit: Andrew Ellsworth/Doors Unhinged.

Doors Unhinged reuse products

The materials found in buildings undergoing demolition or renovations are usually just thrown out—even if they have many years of service life left in them. This is a waste of resources, energy and landfill space. It’s not easy finding, storing and reselling these materials, though, so there are few companies trying to do so.

Doors Unhinged reclaims doors, frames and hardware from projects undergoing deconstruction or demolition. It finds projects undergoing deconstruction, removes the products, catalogs and stores the products, and collaborates with architects and others to get the reclaimed products into new projects. The company’s process reduces embodied carbon of these products by over 95% compared to buying new—all while minimizing the air, water and ecosystem impacts of manufacturing.

Footprint Project emergency power

Due to a warming climate, we are seeing more hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters. When these happen, one of the first things to go is the electrical grid, leaving those most in need without power. In addition, emergency generators are typically powered by fossil fuels that can be hard to obtain and that add to the climate crisis.

Footprint Project helps provide solar-powered generators, including PV panels, battery storage and accompanying components to areas hit by disasters. The organization also trains local first responders on how to install, use and maintain these systems. These generators supply low-carbon, reliable, resilient power, replacing those that run on dirty fossil fuels—which can be hard to obtain in disaster areas.

Footprint Project has helped provide renewable, resilient emergency power for more than 15 disaster response and recovery missions, including hurricane Ida in Louisiana, tornados in Kentucky and Tennessee, and earthquakes in Puerto Rico.

Go Lab TimberHP Wood Insulation

Insulating and sealing our buildings should be a top priority for saving energy, lowering carbon emissions and reducing our negative environmental impacts. Yet current insulation materials take a lot of energy to make, use potentially hazardous raw materials and can emit hazardous compounds into our buildings.

TimberHP wood insulation is made from remnants from Forest Stewardship Council–certified forestry. These loose fill, batt and board insulations are carbon-negative and also work well, taking advantage of wood fiber’s natural interlocking properties. Batts and loose fill do not settle or slump and are treated for protection against fire and pests; batt and board products have a small amount of paraffin for moisture protection; and the board products contain a polyurethane binder. All provide excellent thermal performance, sound protection and moisture management.

Footprint Project disaster support with solar panels and tents set up on tennis courts. — Left: Footprint Project disaster support. Photo credit: Footprint Project. Middle: Go Lab TimberHP wood insulation. Photo credit: TimberHP by Go Lab. Right: HempWood Flooring. Photo credit: Mary Craven.

Different thicknesses of TimberBatt insulation stacked with the top one cut on an angle — Left: Footprint Project disaster support. Photo credit: Footprint Project. Middle: Go Lab TimberHP wood insulation. Photo credit: TimberHP by Go Lab. Right: HempWood Flooring. Photo credit: Mary Craven.

HempWood flooring

Before the age of plastics and petrochemicals, industrial hemp was once one of the world’s most important materials. Not only does hemp have a wide variety of end uses, it also has a number of environmental perks. It is fast-growing, drought-resistant and sequesters carbon. Hemp is now legal to grow, but few hemp products have made it to market.

HempWood is out to change that. Its tongue-and-groove engineered flooring uses local hemp and a soy-based polyurethane resin to make a top layer. That is adhered to FSC-certified, formaldehyde-free plywood. HempWood flooring is available unfinished or prefinished, with a number of stain and finish options. The company also sells nonstructural HempWood lumber for furniture, trim and other interior applications.

Hudson Technologies Refrigerant Recovery

Refrigerants present one of the world’s biggest climate challenges. Found in everything from chillers to refrigeration throughout the world, they typically have very high global warming potentials (GWPs) and leak into the atmosphere throughout an equipment’s life cycle. Though high-GWP refrigerants are being phased out, minimizing the impacts from those in use is a priority.

Hudson Technologies’ refrigeration recovery machine in front of HVAC equipment. — Hudson Technologies Refrigerant Management. Photo credit: Hudson Technologies.

Hudson Technologies keeps old refrigerants out of the atmosphere by recovering them during equipment repairs or disposal or when converting to more environmentally responsible refrigerants. The company has a three-part, “circular” product model for refrigerant: It cleans refrigerant on-site, improving the energy efficiency and performance of the equipment. It purchases old refrigerants, cleans them and sells them under the Emerald Refrigerants brand, keeping new refrigerants from being made. Then, the company also helps dispose of the older, most environmentally damaging refrigerants.

Innovatreat miniMBR aquaMINE Onsite Wastewater Treatment

We see pictures of drought almost daily now: agriculture fields left dry, rivers at a trickle and dams barely able to supply power. Our potable water requires chemicals and the energy needed to transport and treat it…yet we continue to use water as if it were an endless resource.

Treating and reusing a building’s graywater has the potential to save enormous amounts of water. Innovatreat’s miniMBR aquaMINE system uses a unique biological wastewater purification process that captures wastewater (excluding blackwater from toilets) on-site, removes trash and solids, and breaks down impurities. Ultrafiltration membranes filter out 100% of the bacteria before the water passes through ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. The water is then stored before being pumped through a building’s graywater water piping for reuse.

A large Innovatreat water treatment system with tank, filters, and controls in a cement room — Left: Innovatreat miniMBR aquaMINE. Photo credit: Rob Kershner/Innovatreat. Middle: Intuitive Oscar Pixel. Photo credit: Intuitive AI. Right: Salient Energy Zinc-Iron Battery. Photo credit: Salient Energy Inc.

Intuitive Oscar Pixel camera system with a black mounting system on a while tile wall. — Left: Innovatreat miniMBR aquaMINE. Photo credit: Rob Kershner/Innovatreat. Middle: Intuitive Oscar Pixel. Photo credit: Intuitive AI. Right: Salient Energy Zinc-Iron Battery. Photo credit: Salient Energy Inc.

Intuitive Oscar Pixel

Hundreds of millions of tons of construction and demolition debris are generated in the United States annually. Some of the construction materials that end up in the dumpster could be reused or recycled if sorted properly.

Intuitive’s Oscar Pixel uses a video camera and an artificial intelligence platform that monitors waste as it’s being thrown out. The system scans materials in real time and alerts contractors so that materials go into the proper dumpster and stay out of the landfill. It tracks and documents data, alerts teams when dumpsters are full, monitors for potentially hazardous materials and more. The company also offers its Oscar Sort recycling stations for interior use to help building occupants place cups, bottles and other waste into the proper bins.

Salient Energy Zinc-Ion Battery

We are going to need a lot of batteries as we move away from fossil fuels. Lithium-ion versions work well and they are lightweight, but lithium is expensive and has significant life cycle and supply chain problems. Lithium is also reactive with oxygen, making it a safety concern due to flammability during manufacturing, storing and use.

Salient Energy’s zinc-ion battery is made with low-cost, abundant zinc and manganese, and no lithium. Their system has a similar life span, performance and manufacturing methods to those of lithium-ion, but zinc-ion but is much safer.

Zinc-ion batteries are significantly heavier than lithium-ion, so they won’t be used in phones or cars, but they are a good fit for building energy storage where weight is less of a concern.

USGBC's Product Solutions Showcase returns in 2023

Sustainable materials are essential to green building, and building professionals' appetite for reliable information about the best ones is growing every year. In July 2022, USGBC launched a new digital event, the Product Solutions Showcase, to help meet this need. Eleven promotional partners and 337 attendees participated in the inaugural online event, which was the brainchild of the U.S. market transformation and development team.

The team, which works with USGBC's local communities and larger regions, was motivated to create the new event by "seeing the increasing need for education and collaboration in the area of sustainable materials in order to address embodied carbon in the built environment and ensure occupant health," says Suzanne Haerther, manager for the centralized operations team.

"MTD aims to provide our members, volunteers and credentialed professionals with the tools and resources they need to advocate for and drive LEED forward in the market," says Haerther. The 2022 Product Solutions Showcase highlighted the Materials and Resources credit category in LEED while also addressing sustainability and resilience as a whole.

A brisk online event incorporating 80 virtual booths, the programs were "chock-full of resources for green building professionals for selecting, evaluating and proper using sustainable materials," notes Haerther. View digital booths and session recordings from 2022.

The program's success guaranteed a second event, which will take place Aug. 9–10 in 2023.

Interested in sharing your products, materials and solutions with our membership? Fill out an interest form to be contacted with details.

Top 10 green building products for 2023