Business' building products are simply green |
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July 08, 2007 From Miami Herald By Patti Roth For home building and remodeling projects, a typical shopping list ignores such potential supplies as leftover denim scraps. Unless the shopper is browsing at a business like AlternaBUILD. AlternaBUILD aims to provide South Floridians a place to purchase products with environmentally preferable attributes. That includes the denim scraps. The insulation sold at AlternaBUILD is a natural fiber product made primarily from fabric recycled from the blue jean industry. The Arizona-based manufacturer of the insulation touts the product as strong and reliable, while also being nontoxic and environmentally friendly. The product costs $1 to $1.20 a square foot. Brothers Nick and Mark Gunia established AlternaBUILD and its parent company, AlternaCorp, about a year ago as a separate venture operated out of a family distribution business in northwest Miami-Dade County. Nick Gunia said AlternaCorp combines his passion for protecting the environment with his business know-how. The AlternBUILD products, available both wholesale and retail, generally are not sold at mainstream home stores, the brothers said. The Gunias select paints, flooring and toilets from manufacturers around the nation based on their environmental qualities and ease of installation and use. "The goal is to make going green simple," Nick Gunia said. The array of products includes flooring made from bamboo, cork and palm with prices from $4 to $11 a square foot. AFM Safecoat Paints, about $25 to 30 a gallon, are designed with little or no fumes to avoid indoor pollution. Among the countertop options is a surface that features a design of shiny squiggles from recycled metal shavings. That eco-friendly surface costs $100 to $150 a square foot, installed. The brothers are particularly excited about their Caroma toilets, which feature a water-efficient, dual-flush design. The toilets have two buttons, providing an option of a regular flush or a lighter flush that uses about half the water. The Caroma toilets cost $250 to $500. Another water-saving product is WeatherTRAK, a sprinkler control system that gathers information via satellite from weather stations in order to adjust itself automatically to current moisture needs. A system for a typical residential lawn costs about $500, plus a monthly weather data service fee. |
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