#greenbuild2016

Just like 2016, “Trade Show Season” is coming to an end and DNA polished our trade show shoes and took to the floor at Greenbuild in Los Angeles. After spending the day onsite at the Convention Center, it was made clear that the underlying theme for sustainable building products this year is ‘preparing for the future through thoughtful, long term planning and ongoing education’.

Brands like Shaw Contract were presenting ‘gen2030 goals’ in their booth and will leverage #greengoals2030 through ongoing commitment campaigns moving forward that encourage achieving said goals. 

Andersen Windows brought artist Tom Murphy into their booth to present his collection of photos from Yellowstone National Park, where Andersen has joined in the YES! Initiative to help “preserve the view from outside [our] windows” long term. 

Utopian Villas brought one of its (very, very cool) tiny homes to the floor and encouraged a ‘simpler lifestyle’ through downsizing everything at home to support in sustainable efforts. They also donated the home to a sustainable community of tiny houses for homeless people after the show.

Speaking of donating homes, SGC Horizon hosted the “Green Zone” with sponsors like LG, Valspar and Delta and the building is now in Compton, Calif. serving as an education center to under privileged students.

While it was enlightening to learn about the future of ‘green’ in building products and we are thrilled to see what’s in store, we’d be remiss not to share everyone’s favorite water cooler conversation after a trade show -- the coolest things we saw.

In no particular order, our top three favorite things:

The tiny houses from Utopian Villas. They are able to fit more than what meets the eye into these homes and they are gorgeous. Perfect for living on the countryside or at the beach.

Kohler never disappoints when it comes to these shows and this year, they introduced a digital shower that allows you to choose exactly what temperature you’d like the water to be, its pressure and how long it lasts. Their hope with this is that users will set the timer at 6 minutes to save water and have executed a #CommitToSix campaign where they’ll donate $1 to water preservation for everyone who makes the pledge.

View Dynamic Glass set up a virtual reality game in its booth and attendees could play to see what it looks and feels like to control your windows from your phone. You could feel the heat or the cool as you changed the temperature through the game. It was a lot of fun.