RELEASE: New Tool Helps People Buy Local, Healthy Energy-Efficient Building Products

WASHINGTON, DC, May 08, 2017 -- The BlueGreen Alliance Foundation today released a new tool to help everyone from building professionals to consumers find energy-efficient housing products that are healthy and made locally. Building Clean—found at http://www.buildingclean.org—offers an easy-to-use interface to access its one-of-a-kind database. Products and manufacturers of products available on the database include appliances, heating and air conditioning equipment, insulation, lighting, plumbing, roofing, sealants, and water filtration. 

Housing consumes more than 20 percent of U.S. energy. Building Clean is designed to make it easier for architects and designers, consumers, contractors and developers, and manufacturers to find American-made, healthy products so they can capture the benefits of energy efficiency retrofits—including lower utility bills, improved occupant health and increased economic development. 

“Building Clean will supercharge efforts to find healthy, American-made products in a wide range of sectors,” said Kim Glas, president of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation. “Building Clean should be in the toolbox of anyone updating multi-family homes, designing new affordable housing or just looking for the safest products to use when upgrading their own home.” 

The site allows both searches for products and manufacturers in energy efficient building sectors and includes information about toxic chemicals commonly found in some product categories. In addition, you can search for products certified with third-party health certifications and that promote transparency by listing the chemicals they contain. 

The site can also be a resource for businesses looking to break into the energy-efficient product supply chain. “We wanted to make sure we were making it easy for manufacturers looking to grow their businesses to find and get into contact with other business with needs they can fulfill, providing an opportunity to grow their market and business,” added Glas. 

Building Clean is an initiative of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation and is a companion piece to the broader Energy Efficiency for All initiative, which is dedicated to linking the energy, housing and health sectors to tap the benefits of energy efficiency for millions of low-income families. 

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Building Clean is an initiative of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that conducts research and educates the public and media about solutions to environmental challenges that create economic opportunities for the American people. Visit https://www.bgafoundation.org. 

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6bb8b338-8273-437f-9192-c38e6cfa80aa

Eric Steen
BlueGreen Alliance Foundation
612-466-4488
[email protected]