Greening the House

ScheinMedia's New York House magazine recently announced the winners of its second annual Innovative Green Design Awards (IGDA) Competition, which contributes to the magazine's stated mission of promoting green living.

The competition is intended to showcase the best eco-friendly, aesthetic home furnishings products available. Entrants were challenged to create products meeting three characteristics:
a defining green or sustainable attribute (in design, material, increased energy efficiency, reduced embodied energy, etc.); made in a sustainable way; new, but available to customers (on the market less than two years).

The excellence of the many entries, particularly in the furniture department, led judges to create separate furniture categories to allow multiple winners: hard goods, soft goods, outdoor, and kitchen.

The winners, by category, are:

Appliances
Isis Fan
Big Ass Fans; bigassfans.com

Building Materials
Pozzotive Plus Concrete Brick Line
Kingston Block & Masonry Supply, LLC; kingstonblock.com

Floor Coverings
Verte Collection
Odegard Inc; odegardinc.com

Flooring
Traditional Cork Flooring
Expanko Cork; expanko.com

Furniture/Hard Goods
Alfresco Collection
Loll Designs; lolldesigns.com

Furniture/Soft Goods
Diamond Fields
Lulan Artisans; lulan.com

Interior Finishes
Lime Putty
American Clay; americanclay.com

Lighting
LEDme Downlights
WAC Lighting; waclighting.com

Plumbing Fixtures
Hydroright Dual Flush Converter
MJSI; gomjsi.com

Other Products
Solon Composter System
Blanco; blancocanada.com

The Special Mention honorees included:

Reliability and Lifespan
Miele Appliances; mieleusa.com

Resource Efficiency
Bosch Appliances; bosch-home.com

Big Company, Small Steps
Shaw Floors ClearTouch; Shaw Floors; shawfloors.com

Sprayfoam
EcoTech Spray Foam Insulation; ecotechsprayfoam.com

Recycled Content, Design
The Refined Line IceStone; icestone.biz

Environmental, Social Reponsibility
Vortis Pendant Hubbardton Forge; vtforge.com

Design, Innovation
Composite Landscape Pavers; VAST; vastpavers.com

Function
Caroma Profile Smart Toilet with Integrated Sink; Caroma; caromausa.com

Jonathan A. Schein, CEO and publisher of ScheinMedia, says in a statement, "We were very pleased with the great response to our second Innovative Green Design AwardsSM — over 30 percent more applicants this year. We at New York House celebrate not only the winners, but all efforts to promote true sustainability. Our goal is to educate and inspire consumers, design, and building trade professionals as well as manufacturers to choose responsibly-made, useful, and beautiful products for their homes."

The winners competed against a plethora of entries from around the world. Entries were evaluated by a panel of judges on criteria such as use of green materials; sustainable methods of manufacturing; energy efficiency; innovation; carbon footprint; and best-looking design.

A slideshow with images and further information is available at NewYorkHouseMagazine.com.

–Lillian Civantos