Winter 2007 Issue


Initiative Highlights


Member Relations Management

ICA held its annual meetings in London in October 2007. Attendance was very strong, with a majority of ICA’s member companies represented at numerous meetings and receptions over the course of several days.

At the Board of Directors meeting on 08 October 2007, three new members officially were elected to the ICA:
  • KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., a producer member, based in Poland
  • Pan Pacific Copper, a producer member, based in Japan
  • Chinalco Luoyang Copper, a fabricator member, based in China
ICA’s 2008 Operating Plan was reviewed by the Advisory and Program Review Committees and, ultimately, was approved by the Board of Directors. In 2008, the Operating Plan will be $54.9 million, plus an additional $28.8 million in third-party co-funding, for an estimated total budget of $83.7 million. This represents highest-ever levels of funding for the ICA, and is a testament to the continued partnership and dedication of the  copper industry and other organizations worldwide.

The membership also formally elected ICA’s 2008 Directors and Officers, and also ratified appointments to various committees. Diego Hernandez, of BHP Billiton, was elected as Chairman of the Board. Stephen Higgins, of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, was elected as Chairperson to the Program Review Committee and Advisory Committee.
MR

       


Funding and Partnerships

The ICA is on track to exceed the 2008 Operating Plan for co-funding, which was submitted to the Board and Program Review Committee in October 2007 at $25.5 million. The actual contributions for 2008 are now poised to reach the $29 million level, another record well above the $22 million level of support enjoyed in 2007.

This represents over 30% in year-to-year growth and results in more than $53 million in cumulative, incremental dollars netted since 2003, when the ICA efforts were launched to build stronger partnerships and larger co-financing commitments. 
  
A main reason for this success is the U.S. Congress, which appropriated a total of $7.2 million for copper projects in 2008, quite a bit more than anticipated in our budget. $2.6 million will be allocated for the development of energy-efficient motors utilizing the cast copper rotor technology, and $4.6 million for two antimicrobial projects, initiated in 2007 with U.S. government support, namely infection control in hospitals through the installation of copper alloy touch surfaces, and improvement of the air quality of HVAC systems. It is worth noting that, to-date, the Congress has awarded a total of $15.6 million for copper projects and that CDA, ICA and its members made their first case for support back in 2003, with an initial result of $1 million awarded.   

Also, on the copper technology front, government and private partners of Chile awarded $2.6 million over a three-year period starting in 2007 for the EcoSea aquaculture project. Efforts continue to receive support and funding for copper technology in general.
 
In the U.S., the creation of a similar government–industry partnership to foster copper technology research and development has recently been initiated. The plan is to create a center of innovation and leverage funds from the ICA Network with those from key governmental departments and other interested stakeholders. A copper development workshop will be sponsored by the Copper Development Association and the Army Research Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina on 29 and 30 January 2008.
Funding

       


Market Intelligence, Data and Measurement (MIDM)

As part of the 2007-2011 ICA Strategic Plan, a new Market Intelligence, Data and Measurement (MIDM) initiative was launched in January 2007. Significant progress was made in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In a first for the MIDM initiative and for ICA, the first edition of the worldwide copper use dataset has been posted on the ICA Intranet. Two documents, which are the introduction, definitions and notes, and the data itself, have been posted in the ICA Intranet folder: Support Functions, MIDM Initiative. This dataset is a live document and, therefore, small amendments to the data will be made centrally and as new and verifiable copper use information is received. Once per year, the data will have a major update. These comprehensive and exclusive data may now be used by organizations and individuals to assist with planning. For further information, please contact Colin Bennett at colin.bennett@copperdev.co.uk.

Preparatory work continues on other planned research projects under the MIDM initiative, with projects such as gathering new intelligence on copper substitution threats and opportunities. In 2008, ICA substitution intelligence will be boosted through internal data collection and external consultancy input. The first findings from this research will be shown at Centro de Estudios del Cobre y la Mineria (CESCO) Week, Santiago, Chile in April 2008.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, three new, copper-focused market research reports were published on the ICA Intranet and the European Copper Institute (ECI) market intelligence portal. The titles of the reports published are as follows: Copper Use in Major Household White Goods, October 2007, Copper Use in Brown Goods in Europe, November 2007 and Copper Use in Grey Goods in Europe, December 2007.
Market Intelligence, Data and Measurement (MIDM)

       


Building Construction

In today’s era of increasing environmental consciousness, being known as a “green” product quickly is becoming the highest accolade of all. Recently, one high-efficiency home heating and cooling system earned an endorsement from perhaps the most publicized environmentalist on the planet—Al Gore.

Although the former U.S. vice president, a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, has not publicly lauded his new HVAC equipment, he voted his approval of an innovative ground-source heat pump system by installing one in his own Nashville home and office headquarters.

According to an assistant, Kalee Kreider, Gore was intent on a geothermal system from the start, and a number of options were researched.

The new HVAC equipment, manufactured by Earth to Air Systems in Franklin, Tennessee, replaced an older system that had a federal Energy Star rating for efficient operation. Kreider says, “But when you look at overall energy use, this new system is far more efficient.”

Installation of the Earth to Air unit included drilling seven small-diameter, 300-foot-deep wells on the Gore property to tap into the earth’s constant underground temperatures. Continuous loops of copper tubing were placed in the wells, which were then sealed with a special grout to create a permanent in-ground “radiator” that circulates a liquid heat-exchanging refrigerant.

building wire

Ground-source heat pumps work by boosting below-ground temperatures, which average 50 to 60 degrees year-round, to a higher level adequate for home heating. The systems also cool homes during warm weather by returning ambient indoor heat to the ground.

Andy Kireta Jr., national building construction manager for the Copper Development Association, consulted on the project to explain the environmental benefits of in-ground copper tubing systems. “Once people see the advantages of copper direct-exchange systems, like this one, they usually go for them,” Kireta says. “We’re just thrilled that Al Gore wanted one for his own home.”

Building Construction

       


Technology

The global demand for speed and power in data and communications networks continues to grow at an impressive rate. Data output of servers is doubling roughly every 24 months, the amount of traffic on carrier networks is doubling every 18 months, and the power consumed by data centers doubles about every five years.

These growth rates represent a challenge to network and data center designers. To keep up with increased data demands, connections within data centers (for example, between application servers, data servers, and network switches and routers) quickly are migrating from 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) to 1Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet). In some cases, connections are being upgraded to 10Gbps (10G) and beyond.  In a few years, 40G and 100G connections will become common in the data center. For long signaling distances (>100m), fiberoptic cable provides an excellent medium for high-speed data transmission. For shorter distances, copper wires can offer the same high performance with lower cost and easy installation, plus additional features such as delivery of power to end devices on Local Area Networks (LANs).

The ICA is supporting three related research projects to address challenges in the data center, where copper’s advantages of excellent electrical and thermal conductivity are providing energy- and cost-efficient solutions for increasing data center performance requirements. In one project, ICA member Nexans, working with electrical engineers at Penn State University, are using copper Category-7 data cables to transmit data rates previously associated only with fiberoptics. Researchers successfully have demonstrated the ability to transmit at least 40Gbps over 100m using Category-7 data cables, and 100Gbps over 70m. The success has resulted in the IEEE discussing and accepting standards for 40G and 100G copper interfaces, helping to make copper cables in data centers a preferred wiring solution for the foreseeable future.

In a second project, the research has demonstrated the ability of Category-7 cables to deliver at least 30W of Power over Ethernet (PoE) to remote network devices without creating significant temperature rises in cable bundles as large as 37 fully energized cables (four full layers of powered-up cables). The resulting increase to 30W (vs. the current 13 W PoE capacity) in power capacity for the power over Ethernet makes feasible the addition to the LAN more devices such as security cameras and small storage and computing devices (and associated copper cable connections) that would otherwise not be feasible due to the cost or practicality of adding supplemental utility power feeds.

The third project, new for 2008, is addressing concern over increasing power consumption in data centers. A new concept, Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE), promises to reduce data center consumption by constantly adjusting the signal transmission power to use only the minimum power required, which varies depending on the instantaneous data speed on a given connection. EEE takes advantage of the ability to vary electrical signal strength over copper connections in order to minimize the energy required to transmit a given amount of information.

The result of ICA’s investment in data transmission cable research is the continuing use of copper wire and data cable as the connection medium of choice in data centers and LANs for at least another five years and perhaps longer. These projects are beginning to illustrate a powerful result for copper that more kilograms of copper content in data centers and LANs mean more bits-per-second per watt of data center and network performance. This result bodes well for copper use in data signal applications long into the future. The impact on copper is a net increase of at least 20k tonnes and perhaps as much as 40k tonnes of additional copper usage per year to provide copper data cables and wires in computer data centers and LANs.  The impact represents continued growth of wire and cable usage and a delay in transition to more expensive and energy intensive fiber optics.
tech

       


SEE

A workshop entitled “Improving Electricity Service for the Urban Poor” was held in São Paulo, Brazil on 04-06 December 2007. The primary purpose of the workshop was to present the results and lessons learned from the Paraisópolis Slum Electrification and Loss Reduction (SELR) Pilot Project.

The program jointly was developed by ICA Latin America, USAID, AES Eletropaulo (distribution utility), Nexans (cable marker) and Itaipu (transformer manufacturer). The workshop also provided the opportunity to share experiences on innovative, socially responsible and cost-effective approaches to expanding access to electricity services in poor urban neighborhoods, with a wide body of practitioners involved with the provision of energy services in poor semi-urban and urban areas. The workshop focused on safety, reliability, and energy efficiency, as well as anti-theft technologies. A total of 116 people attended the workshop, representing 57 organizations from 23 countries around the world.

Background
In October 2005, the ICA and USAID signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly support the Sustainable Energy Use Alliance. The two primary objectives of the Alliance are to promote the efficient use of energy and, to improve access to modern energy services to un-served and underserved areas worldwide. The first program was to develop, test and evaluate customized approaches to improve electricity access and normalize services in slum areas for wide-scale implementation through pilot projects. Pilot sites were selected in São Paulo, Brazil and Mumbai, India, where large populations of slum dwellers live and would benefit from the project activities. In São Paulo, the SELR Team launched the pilot in September 2006 to provide legal, safe and affordable service to the 4,500 formerly illegal electricity consumers in Paraisópolis, the largest slum in São Paulo. The pilot will be expanded to AES-Eletropaulo’s remaining 6,000 households in Paraisópolis and another 150,000 in other slums in their service area.

A summary of the results of the Paraisópolis Project was presented by SELR Team, where 4,365 homes and commercial buildings were regularized, with a total investment of $1.8 million. In order to connect these customers, around 90km of copper coaxial cables were used, proving the efficiency of this product to avoid electricity theft. To improve the energy efficiency within these homes, 9,600 lamps, 500 refrigerators and 500 electric showers were replaced with more efficient units. Further improvements were made to energy efficiency and safety through the rewiring of 500 homes. The total estimated energy savings are estimated to be 28% of the original consumption, or 300,000 kW hours/month. The pay-back period for the project conservatively was estimated to be 54 months.

Conclusions
The workshop achieved its main objective to communicate the results of the Slum Electrification Pilot of Paraisópolis among potential worldwide stakeholders. The technical and social solutions featured during the workshop prove the sustainability and the affordability of the project. The financial analysis demonstrated the affordability of this project considering the drastic reductions of theft and energy losses, which should be maintained by continuous social initiatives at the slums. Finally, the decision to invest in slum electrification and loss reduction in urban poor communities by the power utilities is economically acceptable with attractive pay-back.

conference image


conference image
SEE

       


Public Health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has again requested a postponement of its targeted date to respond officially to the Copper Development Association Inc. submission for registration of antimicrobial copper alloys, an action, it is believed, which reflects the cautious nature with which the Agency is approaching this groundbreaking work.

According to Dr. Harold Michels, senior vice president of Technology and Information Services, CDA, “We continue to satisfy the EPA’s requests for information and have held additional meetings with them to address their concerns. We believe strongly that approval of the registration is well within our sight.”

Both the touch surface and the air quality clinical trials are moving forward according to plan. At Selly Oak Hospital in the UK, installation of copper surfaces has begun. In the U.S., clinical trials in both South Carolina and New York have entered into Phase I: test surfaces have been identified and sample collection and related bioload measurement have begun.

Behind-the-scenes activities, including market development and public relations, are yielding success. More and more news articles have appeared in a variety of print and digital media outlets while research papers, addressing copper’s antimicrobial efficacy against different organisms of great concern to the healthcare community, continue to be published in peer-reviewed journals.

To date, the work being done—on all fronts of the global antimicrobial project—is generating awareness of the program among manufacturers and healthcare professionals alike and who have expressed interest in partnering with us in this groundbreaking project.
Public Health

       


Communications

In the last few months, Europe used Architecture and Design to promote a modern, valuable, and sustainable image of copper and its alloys.

CDA UK’s 13th Architecture Awards provided an opportunity to organize a media event around contemporary architecture in London, through an air, sea and road visit of the City, including participation of well known architects and member companies. FT, Bloomberg, Dow, Jones, Reuters, LBC, ITN London tonight, and others attended the tour and resulted, for instance, in a five-minute broadcast on the World television Channel TV5, whose audience reaches 25 million viewers. Click here to rediscover London through a copper perspective and see the feature.

“ZZZ” by Francesca Cuicchio: an accessory for flowerpots, which may help to prevent the development of mosquito larvae, illustrating yet another example of copper’s potential role in controlling the spread of disease.

copper flowerpot accessory

September saw the presentation in Milan (Italy) of the results of the European Copper in Design competition, including the winning copper plant pot, entitled “ZZZ”, whose object’s characteristic is to help fight the spread of disease by mosquitos. (Please see the photograph below.) This copper product was broadly promoted by the media in key European countries (Belgium, France, Italy, The UK, etc.), including key messages such as copper’s antimicrobial properties.

Last, but not least, and also in Italy, ECI and the Italian CDA (Istituto Italiano del Rame) organized in November the fourth edition of the Living of Copper Biennale, which presented the work of ten renown world designers. A press conference took place on 28 November 2007 at the prestigious Triennial Palace (a famous museum), in presence of 80 journalists, designers and architects and of the chairman of the Italian CDA, Italo Romano, Chief Finance Officer of KME. The exhibition last from 28 November through 30 December 2007. Click here to access the catalogue of the exhibition.
Communications

       


Operations

In Q4 2007, ICA’s finance and administrative team continued to work on improving efficiencies and controls, and to implement financial policies and procedures.

The chart of accounts has been modified to allow the capture of financial transactions by region, country, center and initiative. BDO Seidman has been engaged to audit the financial and information technology functions. BDO Seidman also was also hired to provide audit services to our centers and regional offices around the world.

The Management Accounting Committee (MAC) continues to work together to ensure timely closings, and increased detail and frequency of reporting.
Operations

       


OEM 

In the fourth quarter 0f 2007, the European Automotive team met with BMW who presented directly the challenges facing them with regard to the uses of copper.

The wire harness represents a similar first cost to that of the body in white. BMW clearly wish to focus on the electrical systems and heat rejection of the next generation of vehicles and would like to see ways to reduce cost, weight and CO2 emissions. The resulting discussions led to a list of opportunities to be scoped out in further discussions. A contact was nominated by both sides and a dialogue will continue. The group agreed it is important to follow up on these opportunities following confirmation from BMW.

Topics of Interest:
  • Heat exchangers
  • E motor/ Hybrid development
  • Energy Storage systems
  • Wire Harness Architecture including ECUs
  • Material information, including public image of copper
  • Motors efficiency including small motor
Following the discussions, the team was invited to visit the fatigue testing facilities of BMW, where various new models were being tested in stationary rigs to simulate driving conditions at race tracks and well-know road systems. Each car part is monitored and qualified for use in the test models. One such rig clearly had tested the part to destruction.
OEM

       


Health and Environment

The ICA Health and Environment Program Advisory Committee (HEPAC) has a newly-created Stewardship Technical Subcommittee. The Subcommittee met for the first time in December 2007 to advance a stewardship scope and strategy for ICA’s Health and Environment Program.

In 2005, ICA defined copper stewardship and subsequently articulated stewardship principles, a strategy, and key actions. At the December 2007 meeting, there was strong support for stewardship and a call for specific deliverables in the coming year. The Subcommittee emphasizes that stewardship is not an end destination, but a direction — most valuable to set forth short-term stewardship projects that move ICA and its members in a direction that responds to members’ current needs and demonstrates progress while answering remaining questions about long-term objectives for copper stewardship. In particular, the Subcommittee endorses the need for a copper LCI, a plan to communicate results to end users, and articulation of the roles of various companies in the value chain.

Five ideas/actions of stewardship should be pursued: (1) complete and publish the life cycle inventory for copper, (2) raise awareness on the rationale and value of the copper life cycle inventory, (3) monitor and manage risks associated with identified ‘hot spots’ in the life cycle, (4) complete a product communication case-study for one competitive product application (e.g., drinking water tube, architectural applications, aircon tube), and (5) expand Subcommittee membership.

Other ideas to be considered in circumscribing the industry’s commitment to stewardship:

1.    Define and oversee:  Establish external advisory board to bring customer questions and trends into deliberations of the subcommittee; define the longer-term role of the subcommittee and set its metrics

2.    Manage:  Watch for emerging potential issues; generate science and data to address known issues; hold semi-annual emerging issues calls; do sustainability-SWOT analyses of competitive-product applications for selected competitive products; set goals for improvement; communicate progress (educate to increase durability, reduce emissions/losses, gain value); perform a second-round LCI involving all ICA-member producers; and actively discourage inappropriate uses of copper

3.    Showcase:  Demonstrate a sustainability pilot (major reductions, major added value); convey copper benefits; manage negative issues; and inform ICA members on lessons to apply.
HE

       


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Top Regional Stories



Asia

In Southeast Asia, recent cases of fire accidents at Pasar Kumbasari, Pasar Turi Surabaya and Pasar Cipanas Cianjur where innocent lives were lost were attributed to fire hazards caused by poor electrical wiring.

These tragic incidents have raised awareness for wiring standards, and PT PLN Bali and the Copper Development Centre - South East Asia (CDC-SEA) are leading efforts to help minimize the risk of these types of tragedies. They have selected the Bali Arts Centre for re-wiring to comply with today’s safety standards. The current electrical wiring is more than 20 years old and is dilapidated. Wiring installation, materials and equipment will be replaced to conform to national codes and standards to minimize fire hazards.

The Bali Arts Centre hosts the annual Bali Arts Festival (Pesta Kesenian Bali) in July each year. It is graced by his Excellency, the President of Indonesia, and participation includes arts and cultural groups from around the world, including Australia, Europe, the United States and other Asian countries, and the festival is attended by thousands of Balinese and tourists. Hence, the urgency in ensuring safe electrical wiring installation is important.

The Bali Arts Centre was selected to kickoff the first of a series of re-wiring projects as part of an electrical safety campaign to raise the awareness of electrical safety to prevent the loss of innocent lives inside buildings, be it homes or major public buildings like schools and traditional markets.

PT PLN Bali and the Copper Development Centre - South East Asia (CDC-SEA), together with the support of KONSUIL Bali, APEI Bali, AKLI Bali and FORKOMGAN Bali, have agreed and pledged to pool their resources and expertize to plan and implement an ongoing program to promote electrical safety in Bali. A Method of Understanding (MoU) sets out the framework on which they will work together.

Panggung Tertutup Ksirarnawa auditorium stage seating
The Panggung Tertutup Ksirarnawa is auditorium stage seating audience size of 500 spectators.
 
Representatives from the Working Group
Representatives from the Working Group on site visit to inspect the electrical wiring systems of the Arts Centre in September 2007.
 
The electrical facilities of the indoor auditorium
The electrical facilities of the indoor auditorium.
 
electrical system
Most electrical systems and facilities at the Bali Arts Centre are more than 20 years old and in urgent need of upgrading.

In other news from Asia, ICA China optimized the revolutionary copper motor rotor (CMR) design, and recently was successful in developing two new products for 2 HP NEMA super-efficiency motors and Nord gearbox motors. Other improvements include more consistent casting with fewer porosity and surface problems. The test result of the 2 HP NEMA super-efficiency motors shows that copper rotor losses are lower than the design value, which proved that the copper rotor meets the rigorous quality requirement for super-efficiency motors.

Siemens will buy copper rotors and use them in their IEC 50 HZ motors. In addition to Siemens, Nord, one of the branch leaders in drive technology worldwide, already has purchased prototype copper rotors for their gearbox. We also got very positive feedback from Crane that they will supply copper rotors in Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

copper rotors




Europe and Africa

Now in its sixth year, an external audit estimated that the messages from ECI’s pan-European media relations program reached over 500 million viewers, listeners and readers during the past 12 months. Most copper messages in today’s media bear no resemblance to the toxicity and “copper kills babies” press articles of the late 90’s.

Launched with the communication of copper’s benefits in the new euro coins (in January 2002) Europe’s media relations program has grown strongly over the past six years. Creativity and strong leadership have integrated more than 40 newsworthy media events, comprehensive press kits, local agency support and credible interviews into an increasingly successful program targeting the general public. Audience figures have risen steadily from 195 million in 2005, to 350 in 2006, and now 540 million in 2007.   

Key topics during 2007 included the launch of the antimicrobial hospital trial in the UK, copper’s roles in energy efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions under the EU’s Eco-design Directive, expanding Europe’s high-speed train network, as well as the expansion of the traditional UK copper in architecture awards up to a European level.

The results of the program have been externally recognized by two annual awards within the French sustainable building’s FIMBACTE festival, and by a nomination for best campaign within the consumer health section of the European Excellence in Communications Awards.

Strategies and actions continuously have been reviewed by ECI’s member Communications Committee and shared with the rest of the ICA Network, both through the global Communications Steering Committee and by hosting on ECI’s public website.

2008 priorities will result in the Communications program focusing more on public affairs messaging to policy makers and opinion leaders both at EU and Member State level.
 



Latin America

Strong activity in the promotion of new uses of copper, especially copper’s antimicrobial properties, was carried out during 2007. Diverse media coverage was achieved region-wide, especially in Brazil and Mexico – the two largest end-use markets for copper in Latin America.

Media relation efforts were focused on improving the knowledge about copper among editors and reporters through various meetings and a constant delivery of information, which resulted in 365 articles published by important regional print and television media. The equivalent advertising value of these articles is nearly $3.5 million.

The campaign focused on topics of increasing concern with the region’s relevant publics, including energy, health, and environment. In Brazil and Mexico, year-on-year results particularly were strong, with an increase in media clippings of 72% in Brazil (from 83 in 2006 to 143 in 2007) and 400% in Mexico (from 12 in 2006 to 53 in 2007).

During 2007, the regional image development campaign (health, antimicrobial properties, etc.) resulted in about $1.4 million of advertising equivalence, a four-fold increase over 2006 ($365,000). Brazil and Mexico accounted for more than three-quarters of image development results in the region.

Regarding 2007 marketing campaigns (rewiring, copper tubes and renewable energy), the advertising equivalence was $2.1 million – double the results of 2006.
 
An important achievement in Brazil was the publication of a free-of-charge special business edition of the magazine “Valor Sectorial,” which is targeted to opinion leaders and entrepreneurs. Important worldwide and regional executive managers from ICA were interviewed about different subjects like health, environment, recycling, energy efficiency, pipes, in addition to electric power and solar energy. This magazine was inserted in the newspaper with a circulation of 60,000.

A diversity of reports, articles, notes and messages were developed to communicate that copper is a friendly environmental element, essential for health, and sustainable due to its recyclable characteristics and it is a fundamental component in technological developments that leads to a worldwide better quality of life.
 



North America

Early in November 2007, two representatives from CDA's Building Construction team traveled to Chicago for GreenBuild 2007, the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. As attendance attests, the green building movement continues making inroads into mainstream building design and construction.

More than 20,000 people attended the annual conference. Additional proof of the conference’s popularity was evidenced by the standing-room-only crowd at each of the 90-minute education sessions.

To enable us to keep our fingers on the pulse of this movement, CDA representatives attended a variety of education sessions related to the specification and use of copper building construction products. The offerings included Government Programs and Initiatives: Advancing Green Building in Mexico; Driving the Market: Green Attitudes—The Consumer Mindset; Best of the Best Projects: Achieving Green Goals in Homes; Climate and Carbon Neutral Design: Carbon Reduction— Strategies that Work; Building Inside and Out: California Raises the Bar—Environmental Product Standards and Specifications; How to Build a LEED School—Lowering the Green Premium through Best Practices and Integrated Design; Building Inside: Indoor Air Quality—Answers to Many Questions; Building Outside: Rainwater Harvesting Systems—Practical, Promising and Profitable Technology; Building Inside and Out: Demystifying Sustainability—A Life-Cycle Perspective.

What was striking about this show was the fact that many of the products shown were not overtly making green claims, in fact, many would be considered mainstream building products. And while there were some new products, they were evolutionary, not revolutionary in nature. Our team did observe, however, that several plastic piping manufacturers had booths to promote their product for radiant floor heating applications, for which they made neither positive nor negative environmental claims.

Perhaps the most important observation the B&C team made was that a dichotomy exists between sustainable building practitioners and green product marketers in today’s green-building movement. In nearly every education session, our staff reported that speakers cautioned about broad acceptance of the claims being made about green products and, instead, emphasized the use of sustainable construction strategies and practices.

Another noteworthy piece of advice dispensed by environmentally-friendly practitioners was that the concept of “green” moves well beyond simple products and product claims to product use, as well as into the environmental stewardship and responsibility exhibited by the companies that harvest, manufacture and sell green products. In other words, a manufacturer must not only talk the green talk, it also must walk the green walk within its corporate culture.

While standards and accepted norms around the truly “green” concept and practice continue to evolve, there is no doubt they will be linked to life-cycle analysis. In the meantime, CDA will continue to monitor this industry-wide, global movement and will strive to play a role in shaping the green market space.
 




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Comments or suggestions regarding the ICA Update
can be directed to Steve Kukoda,
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