At the recent BuildingsNY trade show in Manhattan, building owners and managers could have their every business want and need served. The more than 500 exhibitors pitching their products at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center offered everything from chewing gum removal services to bird and pest control (“A Good Bug is a Dead Bug,” the sign read at the booth of First Exterminator Inc. of Highland Mills) to high-tech building security.
Yet the dominant theme of the 27th annual show sponsored by Associated Owners and Builders of Greater New York was shown on a large banner that hung over the center aisles of the exhibit floor: “Energy and Green Buildings.”
The booming going-green movement in the building trades was prominently on display, from soy-based spray foam insulants to Consolidated Edison steam for heating and cooling. Numerous vendors hung green pennants supplied by the show”™s sponsor that identified them as a “Green Solutions Provider.”
”˜Environmentally preferable”™
From Yonkers, Howard Rosenzweig and a sales assistant came to the show bearing “green” cleaning solutions in sealed green buckets. Rosenzweig is president of Crown Janitorial Products, an 8-year-old division of Crown Products, a commercial equipment, packaging and supplies business at 450 Nepperhan Ave. that began as a pushcart operation in 1919.
Changing with the greening times, Crown in its business practices has adopted a philosophy of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” The janitorial company”™s president brought to the show the Good Earth line of “environmentally preferable” janitorial products that Crown distributes.
“For us, there”™s a lot of good stuff involved in what they”™re trying to do with green products,” said Rosenzweig, whose customers are residential and commercial building managers. In his business, “The trick is getting products that still work, when you are taking out these products that have been used for years and finding environment-friendly products that work. There”™s an evolution.” As with automakers”™ evolving efforts to develop more efficient and less costly hybrid cars, “The same thing is going on in our business,” he said.
“It”™s really still in its infancy,” he said. At present, “Of 100 cleaning products, maybe 15 to 20 percent is going to be in green products.”
Need for guidelines
Rosenzweig said there is “definitely” an increased demand for green products from customers. “From the business point, it”™s defensive” ”“ not going green could cost the business customers. “It”™s also an offensive resource to help market our company to customers where another company hasn”™t gone forward with green products.”
Rosenzweig said manufacturers pay to have their less toxic products tested and certified by Green Seal, an independent, nonprofit agency that sets environmental standards for products in an operation similar to Underwriters Laboratories.
“There”™s really no government agency overlooking this,” he said. “We feel it would be better if there was one, if the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) got actively involved in setting up standards. There”™s no real set of guidelines.
“I could put something in a green bottle and call it green glass cleaner. There”™s a lot of work that needs to be done to slush it out of that stage.”
In the green buildings movement, “Certainly the lead has been schools, institutions and community-based organizations,” he said. “Residential real estate has kind of been the laggard on this.
“Commercial buildings, on the other hand, are way ahead of real estate.”
”˜Sea change”™
From New Rochelle, Mattergy Solar Inc., a startup business that provides commercial and industrial solar heating and electrical systems, made its first appearance at the BuildingsNY show.
Richard Schoen, the company”™s executive vice president, said 40 percent of the city business leads generated at the show involved multiple-family housing, from four-unit brownstones to high-rise apartments and condominiums. New York building owners seemed more inclined to heat their properties with solar power than generate electricity with it.
At the two-day show, “We sort of confirmed our suspicion that thermosolar might be more of our market in Manhattan and the boroughs than photovoltaics,” Schoen said.
Schoen, a trained architect from California who describes himself as a “recovering academic,” said the time when solar energy entrepreneurs were viewed as well outside America”™s business and cultural mainstream “is long gone. Now, it”™s the fastest-growing industry in the country. It”™s 30 percent growth a year.”
“It”™s part of the sea change on the part of that public with respect to global warming,” he said.
At BuildingsNY, it was clear that business is riding the green wave on that rising sea.
