Innovation Archives - Page 3 of 3

NEVER TOO OLD TO GO GREEN

Carnegie Hall, the world renowned concert hall that has stood at 881 7th Ave. in Manhattan since 1891, has turned green with sustainability. With the help of global technology company Siemens, Carnegie Hall recently obtained the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver Certification – making it one of the oldest and most notable buildings to achieve such distinction.

The technology company incorporated a vital feature that helped secure Carnegie Hall’s green stamp of approval: centralized control through its APOGEE building automation system. The system combines regulators for heating, venting, and air conditioning onto one platform that can be controlled both locally and centrally. (Click on the image to read the details)

In addition to all the technology provided by Siemens, Carnegie Hall earned additional points toward certification with the addition of low-flow plumbing fixtures, LED lighting and occupancy sensors. However, the greening of the iconic property didn’t stop with interior upgrades; they created a 10,000-square-foot terrace allowing to decrease the building’s overall carbon footprint through the use of pavers and plantings.

What a great project overall! It was probably a challenge retrofitting a nearly 125-year old building that had no original blue prints with technology that would modernize its energy efficiency, fire and safety systems, and plumbing fixtures. However, as a result of all the efforts, Carnegie Hall is now one of the oldest buildings to receive a LEED Silver Leadership certification. Pretty impressive indeed!

Read the full article here.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGY IS OUT

There has been waterfree and there has been low flow urinals, but there has never been anything like our high volume, power washing Hybrid technology. Today we officially launch the revolutionary Hybrid Technology to the US new construction market through exclusive partner, Sloan Valve Company, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

By taking the best attributes of waterfree technology and combining them with the best of flushing technology, we have created the most hygienic, water saving, high performance urinal available. Our revolutionary, patented technology functions waterfree in daily use and introduces a full gallon (4 liter) flush through your housing and pipe system every 72 hours, rather than trickling small volume of water with each use. This timed power-washing provides a large supplemental flow of water which helps to effectively clean out sediment build up from your housing and pipes out and ensure continued optimal system flow. Truly bringing you the world’s best flushing technology.

One other exciting aspect of the Hybrid technology is that it provides maximum U.S Green Building Council LEED points with consistent and quantifiable water savings for sustainability professionals or for those looking to respond to drought conditions.

LEED PROJECT: SONGDO IBD

The Songdo International Business District (IBD) in South Korea is proving to be one of the most ambitious green developments anywhere in the world. According to the USGBC, “Korea was reached another green building milestone and now totals 19.5 million square feet of LEED-certified space” all in this major business district. With a number of energy efficient buildings being constructed within the 13 million square foot area, it is setting a precedent on what can be achieved in Asia.

Among these buildings is the first exhibition center on the continent to be granted LEED certification, as well as a school, residential tower and hotel, which have all been granted the prestigious award. Rick Fedrizzi, president, chief executive officer and founding chair of the US Green Building Council, said: “With the recent certification of its ninth LEED project, Songdo IBD is making its vision of high-performance, energy-efficient, healthy green buildings a reality. These include energy and water efficiency, a sustainable site and building materials brought from local and recycled sources.

We commend Songdo for its extraordinary, inspirational accomplishments. Way to go!

WE LOVE THIS APP: USGBC

The USBGC has a new mobile and iPad app and it is nothing short of amazing!

The new app enables you to read articles on your mobile device and iPad through a well designed, and easy-to-use interface. With it you’ll have access to the latest news and articles published on usgbc.org. You are also able to sign in to your usgbc.org account, in case you have one, and search within your personal library for a specific article you’re looking for, or search within a publication for a specific topic. Additionally, the app allows you to highlight passages, bookmark locations, and easily read in low light with “night” mode.

USGBC just made our green building reading a whole lot better! Download the app here.

SPOTLIGHT- The Northern Rift Innovation Games: WATER

Welcome back! It is time for our Spotlight series. Today we will be featuring a Los Angeles based online idea building platform, Northern Rift. We had the pleasure of interviewing Robert DePinto, the founder of Northern Rift and got to ask a few things surrounding their new Innovation Game: WATER.

Without further ado, let’s go right to the interview.

Tell us a little bit more about Northern Rift and how the Innovation Games started.

Northern Rift is an online idea building platform where people share their “hunches” & ideas and the community contributes to rapidly move those ideas forward to a better yes, or faster no.

We all have ideas – the problem is, we rarely know what to do with them. Sometimes we don’t even share them, and we think that is a waste of human creativity, and great ideas may never see the light of day because of it. Our mission is to unlock the hidden potential in every hunch & idea.

The Innovation Games started because “innovations” have to win a battle between competing ideas. That “battle of ideas” has rules, is time bound, and there are different outcomes. i.e. it is a game, hence The Innovation Games was born.

What is your roll in the organization and what interested you in wanting to create an idea building platform?

I’m the founder of Northern Rift. I’ve always been interested in human potential and especially how much of it is wasted / not fully utilized. In the late 90’s I built, (arguably) the first crowdsourcing platform in the world. We harvested the excess intellectual capacity of people from around the world to solve “specific” problems. From a business point of view, we made mistakes and after a few years of operation, ended up closing down. So i know what failure looks and feels like. Ouch! But importantly we learned a lot.

So, after 15 years and even with the many crowdsourcing & crowdfunding platforms, I still felt there was a lot more opportunity to value people’s creativity and ideas, so i came back to build Northern Rift. We’ve actually got 4 of the team from my first startup back. We “put the band back together” – it’s great!

Why the focus in water?

First, given SoCal is in a severe drought and we need ideas “now”, we felt it was a good fit for what we do – i.e. rapidly unleash the hidden potential in every idea. We felt we could actually make a difference to Southern California by engaging a wider audience in the discussion; to surface new ideas and drive them to a better yes; and accelerate innovation in water conservation.

Second, water is a global issue that touches everything from the oceans, through to the health & security of every living creature on the planet – it is all connected. (In January 2015, the World Economic Forum, named water as the number 1 risk factor, in terms of social devastation, in the world today.)

With our digital platform, we hope to tap into global resource pool, and have an impact where its needed around the world.

The drought has easily become the number one topic in the media. How does the Innovation Game bring to life this ever so talked about subject?

The average person can actually get involved in generating solutions. You dont have to be an “expert” to help create a solution. Anyone can submit an idea, or they can contribute purely by using their skills, experience, and perspectives to make an existing idea better.

We’ve already seen ideas that started as a simple 2 line “hunch” get contributed to by people who share the same frustration, and quickly that 2 line idea takes a life of its own and people contribute to make the idea more robust by adding tips on marketing, competition, pricing etc.

We are also seeing ideas are getting cross-connected. i.e. there is overlap in some ideas, and when you combine them, the value proposition gets even better and more compelling for people to test & adopt the idea.

The more people that contribute the better, because you start to get all types of interesting cross-connections, sparks of imagination, and even some truly crazy ideas – and we do need those as well 🙂

When all is said and done, will the ideas submitted by players come to life?

Great question. As part of the game, we are offering several things to improve the chance ideas getting into market and having an impact:

the winners of each round (top idea generators and top collaborators) get a short masterclass in “hunch-to-innovation” i.e. the path to take that seed idea and turn it into an innovation in market. It is not a silver bullet – however it does contain valuable tips and a high level “map” of what lay ahead for new innovators which can save time and a lot of pain.
the top ideas will get a visual prototype done. it is about visual storytelling, which significantly improves the idea and its ability to get noticed.
as the game builds we are getting interest, from government agencies, corporates, incubators & other startups. All of which might be able to take these to the next stage.
and finally, all the ideas are viewable on NorthernRift.com, and our facebook page, so people can engage, discuss & share into the future, so perhaps an idea will get picked up then.

Thank you so much Rob for taking the time to answer the questions and for being building a space were everyone can share ideas and help address a pretty important issue – the drought! If you want to take a look at some 80+ ideas already submitted, check out their Facebook page here. If you want to learn more about how to join visit their website here.

MCBCE RECAP

Last Thursday, we joined our partner Sloan, at the Municipal Green Building Conference and Expo (MGBCE) in Downey, CA. The MGBCE brings together thought-leaders in green building and sustainability with municipal policy makers, policy implementers, leading architects, and engineers to further the development of a sustainable and energy efficient future for Southern California.

The event was focused on raising awareness about drought solutions for the commercial restroom. Key Sloan water efficient products were discussed and featured at this event. Our Waterfree technology was accompanied by Sloan’s High Efficiency Flushometers and Fixtures, Dual Flushing devices and sensor faucets.

We are always thrilled to take part in sustainability events such as the MGBCE. These are the moments we get to talk about things that are important to our company. The three pillars we once talked about here on the blog. Sustainability, Innovation and Hygiene. They are all intertwined and constantly work together to propel us forward in our journey. Whether it is investing in local communities, promoting environmental conservation, or developing products that reduce footprint, save water, cut back on unnecessary energy consumption.

More details on the event can be found here. If you are interested in learning more about our green story click here.

FLASH BACK FRIDAY – LOGO EVOLUTION

F R I D A Y is here once again and we are taking it back a few years. For almost 15 years we have taken the lead in helping to establish a sustainability mindset within the plumbing and restroom fixture industry – and with that comes necessary changes. Even though the core of our company continues the same, we have grown and so has our brand identity.

We put together an evolution of our logo. From our very first one that debuted our company into the market down to the design we currently embrace as the face of Falcon!

Hope you have a great weekend and come back Monday for a countdown to the ISH tradeshow. We can’t wait.

ISH 2015: THE TOILET

ISH is quickly approaching and we couldn’t be more excited to share our latest water conservation technology with you. Time is ticking fast and we are almost ready to board the flight to Germany.

As we said before, ISH is the World’s Leading Trade Fair for The Bathroom Experience, and the exhibition is known for covering technology that surround water and energy. With everything from sustainable sanitation solutions, innovative bathroom design and energy efficient heating technologies combined with renewable energies to environmentally friendly air-conditioning, cooling and ventilation technology. ISH covers all aspects of future-oriented building solutions, and the key word for the trade show is innovation.

With that said, Falcon is currently in development of new toilet technology and has filed multiple patents on some very promising new solutions, aimed at water conservation combined with performance. At this point in time, we can’t say much about the technology, however we are taking it to ISH!!! If you happen to be attending don’t hesitate to stop by and take a better look at our new innovative flushing technology.

YOU’VE GOT MAIL: 2015 U.S. WATER PRIZE

It was a regular Tuesday afternoon when the email came through our inbox. It was like any other newsletter, however we couldn’t help but feel enthusiastic about what we were about to read.The U.S Water Alliance (USWA) had announced the winners for the 5th annual Water Prize award and one name particularly popped out.

A little background on the prize first…The U.S. Water Prize was created by the USWA to elevate organizations with strategies that promote the value of water and the power of innovating and integrating for water sustainability. These organizations usually are at the forefront of protecting U.S. watersheds; through technology, collaboration, and education they drive the country to a more sustainable water future.

The reason why we were excited when opening that email, was we read that our friends at the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department were one of the 2015 winners; with their Water Purification Demonstration Project as the award-winning effort. The project findings are helping develop standards for potable reuse across the country and enabling the City to move forward with Pure Water San Diego, a 20-year water reuse program to supply 83 million gallons per day of drinking water locally by 2035.

We are thrilled for this announcement and send big congrats to all in the San Diego Public Utilities Department.

For more info on the winners click here.

ISH: THE MECHANICAL CARTRIDGE

ISH is quickly approaching and we couldn’t be more excited to share our latest water conservation technology to the European market.

Water conservation in the plumbing industry can be a bit tricky, as water conservation can greatly inhibit how product’s function alone and within a building’s piping infrastructure. As plumbing industry manufacturers have adjusted to conserve precious fresh water resources they have continually cut back on the water used for each flush. This ultimately means that with each little flush there is a high urine to water ratio trickling down which can create hard scale build up in your building’s pipes. Solids from the urine can combine with solids from the water to create substances that are like rock.

There are two approaches you can take to keep your pipes happy and avoid this nasty hard build up – one: eliminate water, pee waterfree! Commit to 100% water savings and never look back. Two: quench your thirsty pipes! Purge your pipes with a large amount of water on a timed and minimal basis.

Falcon has long been known for our leading and patented waterfree technology, which takes care of option one, but with the introduction of our new Hybrid Urinal we have you covered for option two as well. Either options saves much more water than any high efficiency urinal on the market and helps your pipes clean and happy. Both waterfree and our new hybrid system are designed to introduce a big purge of water to flush out the pipes. One is by hand, the other is automated.

In addition to introducing our latest Hybrid Urinal technology at ISH we will be debuting a brand new waterfree Mechanical Valve Cartridge options. Although our liquid trap Velocity Cartridge is our most robust solution, it isn’t the right fit for every installation. With the addition of our new valve technology we can offer the European market the proper solution for any facility type. The Velocity is great in high volume and high traffic places like stadiums and office buildings, where as our Mechanical Valve is highly effective for lower traffic restrooms and independent commercial applications like pubs and restaurants. With exceptional flow rate and unique patent protected technology, our Mechanical Valve Cartridge will be sure to be an effective solution that helps prevent hard scale build up in your pipes and improve end user experience (nobody likes to walk up and find a pool of someone else’s left behind).

Come visit us at ISH, Booth 4.1 K65, to learn more about all of our unique and innovative technologies that keep us the water conservation leader in the industry.