Some of the products that were recognized by BuildingGreen, Inc. a few months ago at the U.S. Green Building Council's conference are amazing. I'm just thinking how much time was spent first in discussions alone whether a concept is worth exploring in a serious way. After that dialogue these scientists and engineers and others probably had to draft the idea on paper, then get it approved by the corner office and finally put it physically together. At least its prototype. And then comes the really hard part. Make it work, make it viable. Test it and tweak it and test it some more.

Let's see which products have passed all the testing and reached the award stage. RetroPlate has come up with a process that transforms new and old concrete slabs into nice and durable floors. The company uses a combination of European stone-grinding and polishing technology with North American hardening and densifying agents and the end result is a finished surface. It gets credit in the building reuse category, reducing impacts from construction and demolition, lowering heating and cooling needs and has great durability and is low-maintenance. This flooring could easily be used in single-family houses and condominium buildings instead of the traditional choices.

Another new invention that got honored is SageGlass that is used for windows. Actually it's a coating applied to clear glass, a multi-layer, thin-film, tungsten-oxide product that provides glare control on demand without compromising views and is as durable as all the other coatings on the market. Let's mention some numbers now. It reduces the visible transmittance from 62% to 3.5%, a notable change, and cuts the heat gain coefficient from 0.48 to 0.09. I honestly don't understand all these figures, but they must good. Its credits come from system controllability, thermal comfort, energy performance optimization and daylight and views. That's a handful of industry talk. Again, very suitable for residential real estate.

PaperStone name gives you some idea what this product is all about. Something hard produced from paper, right? Yes, it's a composite material made from cellulose fiber, or paper, and a non-petroleum phenolic resin. It's a hard, dense, water-resistant and solid-surface material that's used in kitchen counter tops, toilet partitions and exterior rainscreen siding. PaperStone's credits are earned in recycled content, rapidly renewable materials and low-emitting materials.

Now that green building is slowly getting the public's attention, these products will have a better chance to become mainstream one day.