KBB - April 2015 - 8

SHOW DIRECTOR'S NOTE

Going Greener

Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) 2016
January 19-21, 2016
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas
www.kbis.com

Just the other day I was reading an interesting article in the Wall Street
Journal on extreme recycling. It caught my attention, as the lead started
with "New ideas include trying to brew beer from puriﬁed sewage water,
composting bodies." That alone sucked me in; I had to read on.
While I am not yet sold on the idea of "poo brew," the piece did highlight
the ReBuilding Center in Portland, Ore., and their efforts to salvage and
sell recycled building materials. They are just one of a number of resources
nationally that collect and sell used kitchen and bath materials.
The unfortunate reality of our business is that the building and remodeling industry produces a signiﬁcant amount of waste. Only about 20
to 30 percent of discarded building materials is actively recycled. The
leftover materials account for as much as 30 percent of waste in area
landﬁlls. There is no doubt that many of these discarded materials can be
salvaged for future use - certainly there is room to improve.
Over the years we have been conditioned to think green in our personal
and professional lives. Clearly, we are more conscious of this issue, and consumer habits seem to reﬂect this cultural shift. We tend to seek out products
that have a low environmental impact or those that have some level of
recycled materials in the ﬁnished product or packaging.
As design professionals, you follow established and widely accepted
design standards and techniques that are more environmentally friendly.
You seek out green materials and present those options to the consumer
during the design process - everything from water-saving plumbing ﬁxtures
to energy-efﬁcient appliances to locally quarried stone to the incorporation of reclaimed materials in the ﬁnal design.
However, how many designers and contractors are giving their customers the option of recycling or donating their existing kitchen or bath? More
local and state municipalities are not just encouraging you to recycle, but
they are actually going to penalize you if you do not recycle in the form of
increased fees for dumping building materials. Certainly not everything is
salvageable, but there are a growing number of services that are happy to
offer a free quote to deconstruct a project for just that purpose. From the
consumers' perspective, there are in many cases tax beneﬁts for donating
kitchen cabinets, hardware, appliances and plumbing products.
As an industry we strive to be green, and there is no doubt we design
green, but we should not look past the impact we can make during the
demo process. With proper planning and outlining the beneﬁts to the
consumer, we can make a positive impact. In K+BB we report on industry
trends throughout every issue - in our Special Report on page 26, designer Patricia Gaylor notes the sustainable products she saw at KBIS.
Personally, I'd like to see green demolitions become the next big trend in
the design space. n

1145 Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 355
Alpharetta, GA 30009

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Joe Randall
joe.randall@emeraldexpo.com
VP KITCHEN AND BATH GROUP
Brian Pagel
(770) 291-5438
brian.pagel@emeraldexpo.com
SALES MANAGER
Amy Hornby
(770) 291-5434
april.hayslip@emeraldexpo.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Maria Hill
(770) 291-5419
maria.hill@emeraldexpo.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Diana Gallagher
(770) 291-5436
diana.gallagher@emeraldexpo.com
MARKETING MANAGER
Rebecca Corbett
(770) 597-8166
rebecca.corbett@emeraldexpo.com
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Lane Vento, CMP
(770) 291-5538
lane.vento@emeraldexpo.com

President
Maria Stapperfenne, CKD, CBD
President-Elect
Mark Kovich
Vice President
Denise Dick, CMKBD
Treasurer
Lorenzo Marquez
Secretary
Blue Arnold, CKD, CBD
Immediate Past President
John Petrie, CMKBD
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer
Bill Darcy
Senior Director of Finance
Stephen Graziano
General Counsel and Director of Legislative Affairs
Edward S. Nagorsky
Director of Governance and International Initiatives
Suzie Williford

Brian Pagel
Vice President, Kitchen and Bath Group
brian.pagel@emeraldexpo.com

+
K BB

April 2015 / www.kbbonline.com / The Ofﬁcial Sponsor of KBIS www.kbis.com

Director of Learning
Nancy Barnes
Director of Marketing
Loren Barrows

http://www.kbis.com http://www.kbis.com http://www.kbbonline.com http://www.kbis.com

KBB - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of KBB - April 2015