Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, has received the 2013 “Greenest of the Green” award.
‘Green’ is more than a color. It is environmental responsibility. It is good business. It sparks passion from employees. It garners respect. It meets growing regulations. Unfortunately, many of the positive “green” actions by the physical security industry have previously been invisible. Every day, the SDM editors take on the challenge to cover what the industry is doing, and we don’t want to miss out on something as vital as the environment.
In celebration of Earth Day, Johnson Controls released its Top Earth Day Champions list to highlight organizations saving the carbon equivalent of 45,000 acres of pine forests through energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at their facilities. That’s the interesting part — which organizations and vertical markets made the list.
It’s green and small. And someone is going to win the HGTV Green Home after a full-press national campaign that will help educate homeowners on the positives of sustainability. Kemp Hall Studio designed the 2,300-square-foot HGTV Green Home 2012 to look, feel and live like a 4,000-square-foot home.
Like the closely-linked market for home energy management systems, the smart appliances market has, so far, failed to take off as quickly as some had expected. Many products are still involved in small pilots and have failed to hit retail outlets in any large number. However, shipments will soon begin to pick up and exceed 24 million units by 2017.
The housing downturn has affected not only the number of new homes that are built each year, but also the characteristics, features and size of the ones that do get built. This includes technologies in and outside the home as well as overarching concepts such as green homes.
Green homes comprised 17 percent of the overall residential construction market in 2011 and are expected to grow to between 29 and 38 percent of the market by 2016. By value, this equates to a five-fold increase, growing from $17 billion in 2011 to $87-$114 billion in 2016, based on the five-year forecast for overall residential construction.
Comcast entered into an agreement with EcoFactor to create a new service that optimizes the heating and cooling patterns of a home and integrates with the Xfinity Home platform.
SDM's editorial headquarters,located at 155 Pfingsten Road, owned by Colony Realty Partners, LLC and managed by Colliers International, earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR certification, which signifies that the building performs in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meets strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA.