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 by kevin, on April 5th, 2010
On July 27, 1976 members of the American Legion gathered at the Bellevue Strattford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA to celebrate the American Bicentennial. Within two days, veterans were falling ill with an unidentified ailment with symptoms similar to pneumonia. By the end of the event, more than 220 attendees had been treated and 34 eventually died. A six month investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally uncovered the culprit – a bacteria breeding in a hotel cooling tower.
I grew up in New Jersey less than 60 miles from Philadelphia. I vividly recall my excitement for the 1976 American Freedom Train and the Bicentennial summer, along with my fear over what would later be named Legionnaires Disease. There was great debate at my school about whether a scheduled field trip to a Philadelphia museum would be canceled. My mother tried to reassure me that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but I knew something was wrong. This incident also had a profound effect on Carol Baumgartel, founder of American Clay. During a recent interview conducted in the LEED Platinum certified home of a good friend she told me how it forever altered her thinking and initiated a heightened sensitivity to the presence of toxic substances commonly found in the average indoor environment.
In 1999, Carol’s oldest son Croft developed skin reactions, headaches, and respiratory conditions from prolonged exposure to caustic chemicals he used with his fine interior finishing business. Around the same time, a colleague introduced him to a European clay plaster product that was free of the potential toxins affecting his health. Although it was an improvement, he thought he could make it better. He enlisted Carol, an interior designer with a fine arts degree in ceramics, to research the product and determine its composition. With her understanding of clays and aggregates and his engineering background they were able to reverse engineer a comparable product.
We should not underestimate the potency of mixing maternal instinct and entrepreneurial spirit. In my interviews with product manufacturers, I’m often told how underlying considerations for future generations influence business decisions. When I raise this issue with Carol it brings her to tears. It’s easy to see how deep her passion runs for merging her business strengths with efforts that contribute positively. Regard for others, even people you don’t know or will never meet, is an essential ingredient of sustainability.
Read more stories of sustainability: Carol Baumgartel 
by kevin, on March 24th, 2010 
During our time in Phoenix AZ for the 2009 Greenbuild Expo we spent some time with Kirei USA Marketing Coordinator Teresa Cooney. Our conversation with her became one of our first in the stories of sustainability series (posted here). Back in January we did a day trip to San Diego for a US Green Building Council San Diego chapter GreenMeet event and were able to spend some time with Kirei USA founder and CEO John Stein at his Solana Beach office. One thing that strikes you right away when arriving is how casual and laid back the entire neighborhood is. Probably in part due to the proximity to the ocean, but Kirei USA is located in an interesting warehouse building on the edge of town filled with artists and other cutting edge businesses. It has a very alternative lifestyle communal vibe to it.
Enter the front door at John’s office and you are immediately met with the tools from one of his competing passions – surfing. Immediately to the left is a rack of wet suits and boards ready to be used at a moments notice. In fact, John tells us that it’s not uncommon for he or someone else at the office to go surfing every day. The space is much smaller than we we expect, and we’re told that’s a common reaction. Although Kirei Board has become a very visible player in the sustainable building materials market, it doesn’t require a huge staff to maintain the operation. John and his crew are actually a small team who occupy the mezzanine while a friend who owns Empowered Energy Solutions uses the ground floor of their warehouse space. The office layout is very casual, with few walls, it’s open, primarily lit with daylight from a number of well placed skylights, and samples are everywhere you look.
Read more on tour: Kirei USA
by aleida, on March 22nd, 2010
Our tour of Vetrazzo’s Richmond, CA manufacturing facility (reviewed here) introduced us to more than just a fascinating industrial process. We also learned the story behind the product from Karen Righthand, VP of Marketing, and John Sabol, VP of Manufacturing.
It all started in the mid-90s on the campus of the [...]
by aleida, on March 19th, 2010
It is rare that we have the opportunity to travel to Florida, so when we were there late last month, we took advantage of our short time in Miami and reached out to Jennifer Ryan at Coverings Etc for a tour of the company’s facilities and showroom. We have long known about [...]
by aleida, on March 17th, 2010
Two-hundred years ago, about 80% of the U.S. population lived and worked on farms. Today, that same percentage of the population lives in cities. The urbanization process left a large number of farmhouses, barns, and other rural structures abandoned to the elements, and for at least the last four decades, there has [...]
by aleida, on March 11th, 2010
At the Los Angeles edition of Go Green Expo in late January, we learned of a Japanese wall covering just recently launched in the United States. Not long thereafter, Kevin and I were welcomed into the Orange, CA offices of Shikoku International Corp., the company that designed and still produces the product, [...]
by kevin, on February 22nd, 2010
The majority of our work is for national chains. It’s rare that we design a project in our home town of Los Angeles. That can be pretty exciting, but it can also keep you separated from your local community. That became glaringly obvious to me when I recently discovered a retail venue in my [...]
by aleida, on February 19th, 2010
After our November sit-down with Paul Burns, the founder and chief ceramicist of Fireclay Tile, we just had to see the manufacturing process with our own eyes. He recently invited us on a tour of his showroom in San Jose, CA and his manufacturing facility in Aromas, CA.
Kevin provided a [...]
by kevin, on February 8th, 2010
Our fifth class was a field trip into downtown Los Angeles to visit the new showroom of InterfaceFLOR. Having seen company founder Ray C. Anderson speak just a few weeks before (posted here), we were treated to a tour and presentation of their efforts to reduce waste from every system. We did [...]
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is it greenwash: Montana Ghost Wood
Image from Montana Ghost Wood web site
We regularly troll the Web for new construction material sourcing leads. Whenever we see a company we’ve not heard, we’re excited to research and investigate. Several months ago such a new material source caught my attention. Posted on a LinkedIn Green Building Products group discussion board, someone [...]