Green Building

American Standard, the leading toilet manufacturer in North America, has launched a campaign to increase awareness of safe sanitation practices to help protect the health of all people through well-engineered plumbing solutions.

The use of open pit latrines in developing countries allows disease to spread through direct and indirect contact with human waste, resulting in upwards of 2,000 deaths per day, mainly among children.

American Standard engineers have invented SaTo (pronounced SAH-toh, derived from “Safe Toilet”), a cost-effective hygienic latrine pan that uses an ingeniously simple mechanical seal and water seal to reduce disease transmission by closing off pit latrines from the open air.

The company will donate hundreds of thousands of these pans to Bangladesh in 2013, one for each of its top-rated Champion brand toilets sold in North America.

For more information on this announcement, view the complete press release or email us.

In a press conference in Tucson on November 14, Aris Integration, LLC, announced that it is establishing its corporate headquarters and a manufacturing center in the Tucson region. The pioneering building systems company plans to bring nearly 600 jobs to support its innovative, sustainable building technologies used in residential and commercial construction.

Aris will manufacture a cost-effective, panelized-wall system that integrates light-gauge-steel structural framing, ultra-lightweight foam insulation and vapor-barrier products and processes with other sustainable materials and energy-efficient design.

Aris’s new production process will yield fully customizable commercial and residential structural insulated panels up to 32-feet long, 10-feet tall and up to 12-inches thick, which will be lighter and faster to install. Changes to panel dimensions, insulation value, interior/exterior coatings, stud spacing, as well as the addition of unique architectural features, such as arches and window/door designs, can be easily modified during the manufacturing process, reducing jobsite construction time and cost. The same highly engineered technology will be used in non-thermal wall panels, roof trusses and floor systems, to ensure high performance throughout the entire building.

The company is in the final stages of the decision-making process on a physical location of its new facility in Tucson, where the company plans to begin manufacturing operations during the fall of 2013. Aris anticipates hiring nearly 600 skilled workers over the next five years, with 250 over the near term. Experienced construction industry personnel will be needed. In addition, Aris is committed to hiring as many military veterans, reservists and National Guard members as possible. The hiring process will be announced viawww.arisintegration.com.

Aris chose southern Arizona for its experienced pool of construction tradesmen as well as coordinated public/private support. The Tucson area facility will be the company’s second of six planned regional manufacturing locations across the U.S. by 2017.

“We’re pleased to locate our second manufacturing operation and Aris headquarters here in Arizona, where many on our team call home,” said Duane Armijo, CEO and founder of Aris Integration, LLC. “As a Southwest native, I truly believe the fuel for our nation’s housing recovery will stem from the type of next-generation jobs and innovative technologies that we are bringing to our Tucson facility.”

For more information on Aris, call (800) 587-6180 or visit www.arisintegration.com. For more information on this announcement, visit http://aris.oreilly-depalma.com/2012/tucson-opening.shtml

Uponor recently received the 2012 Efficiency Partner Award by Minneapolis, Minn.-based Xcel Energy® for its outstanding efforts in curbing electric consumption in manufacturing operations. The Efficiency Partner Award honors those who participate in Xcel Energy efficiency programs to lower their energy costs and reduce their impact on the environment.

“We were accepted into Xcel’s Process Efficiency Program in 2011 and made significant reductions to our electric consumption over the past year, reducing it by 1.8 million kilowatt hours,” says Dan Hughes, Uponor Real Estate and Development Manager. “In addition to the significant energy-cost savings to Uponor, this level of reduction benefits the environment by eliminating the equivalent greenhouse-gas emissions of 243 passenger vehicles per year.”

According to Hughes, the Xcel Process Efficiency Program is a holistic approach to energy management, identifying opportunities for improving business practices associated with energy management processes in addition to identifying potential technical energy-efficiency opportunities that reduce consumption.

Uponor currently has Xcel-funded studies in process for even more reductions and is anticipating qualifying for the award in 2013 as well. For more information about Xcel Energy’s efficiency programs, visit www.responsiblebynature.com.

Grundfos North America President Jes Munk Hansen joined Danish Trade Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr at a recent congressional forum in Washington, D.C., to discuss how Grundfos’ home country, Denmark, is meeting the economic, environmental and energy challenges of the coming decades and how the U.S. can apply these lessons.

 

Jes Munk Hansen, president of Grundfos North America, (standing) spoke at a recent congressional forum exploring the nexus of energy, water and climate change that was sponsored by The Royal Danish Embassy and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

Hansen challenged American policymakers to enact an energy-efficiency labeling system—more sophisticated, but similar to the EPA’s Energy Star program— that would allow non-technical purchasers and specifiers to easily identify energy-efficient products.

“A labeling system would lift the entire industry to new heights,” Hansen said. “Our elected officials must set ambitious energy goals. Producing energy is one of the biggest consumers of energy. At the same time, moving water accounts for up to 20 percent of electricity use. We need to address this nexus now in order to ensure a positive and prosperous future.”

More information on the congressional forum may be found here.