The Greenbuild conference, as usual, was the place to find out about innovations in green building products.

Agepan THD wood-fiber insulative sheathing is now being sold by the Small Planet Workshop. Click to enlarge.
Photo Credit: The Small Planet Workshop.

I attended the Greenbuild Conference and related meetings in San Francisco last week. This is the largest conference and trade show in the green building field, and it is increasingly becoming the national event where large manufacturers roll out new building products.

Described below are a few product highlights from the trade show that caught my eye as I wandered around. I only got through about a quarter of the trade show.

Wood-fiber insulation from Germany

In Europe it is becoming increasingly common to use high-permeability wood fiber sheathing as an exterior insulation material, and at least one such material was on display at the conference. The Small Planet Workshop in Olympia, Washington, is now distributing the German product Agepan THD. These 2"-thick panels insulate to R-5.7 (R-2.3 per inch) and have a high perm rating of 18—meaning that water vapor can pass through it fairly easily.

read more

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that the world’s wild fish harvest will fall to 90 million tons in 2012, down 2 percent from 2011.

The fuel cell is part of Microsoft's Data Plant project to build a zero carbon data center.

eBay's timely launch will help holiday shoppers find great deals and also have a lighter environmental footprint.