Green Power Technologies Unveils BERT, and It’s Home Grown in PA
Posted On May 20, 2011
Pennsylvania, get ready for (GPT) Green Power Technologies, LLC’s new energy savings “smart plug” called BERT. BERT (short for Best Energy Reduction Tools) is an energy control freak that allows you to control energy use throughout a building. The BERT plug turns on and off according to whatever schedule is programmed into the PC-based control program using a building’s existing WiFi network. BERT has been approved by the Pennsylvania Department of General Services COSTARS program, a statewide purchasing program used by schools, libraries and local governments. “This is a great technology,” says librarian Bob Rekuc from the Indian Valley Public Library in Telford, PA. “We have lots of computers in the library, and while we should turn each one of them off each night we don’t always do it. It’s nice that BERT can turn them on and off for us.” BERT also works well in office settings. For example, the Sustainable Energy Fund in Allentown has been using BERT to turn off computers, water coolers and office equipment when their offices are closed. “Technologies like BERT are critical for the next stage in energy conservation,” says SEF’s John Costlow. “The ability to control all those smaller energy uses is key to meeting larger energy savings goals.” “We’re excited to be manufacturing in Pennsylvania. With all the talk of industry moving offshore, people need to realize that there are growing businesses catering to tomorrow’s needs,” continues Puschnigg. And it’s not just manufacturing. GPT is also using local talent for design, engineering and marketing. While GPT is a privately held company, it has received funding from the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership, a statewide fund dedicated to helping keep technology jobs in the state. “BERT has been well received by industry,” reports Bob Powell, who is heading up GPT’s sales and distribution channels. “We’re receiving orders from electrical distributors and rep firms from across the country,” says Powell. More information about the technology can be found at www.bertbrain.com SOURCE: Green Power Technologies, LLC
King of Prussia-based GPT starts manufacturing this week. “People told us that we’ll have to go offshore if we want to manufacture electronics at an affordable, competitive price, but we resisted,” said Craig Puschnigg. He is a Naval Academy graduate, class of 1992, a veteran, and a Pennsylvania native. So, he has his loyalties. “I’m not saying it was easy, there were many naysayers, and those who just could not meet our price point. Then we went to visit Millennia Group, a manufacturer in Cheswick, PA. We liked the way they handled getting to know BERT. They jumped right in and added value engineering from day one,” he continued.
Posted in Green News
UL Environment Buys Greenguard
Posted On Jun 3, 2011
For the second time in five months, UL Environment, a division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), has acquired a major brand in the green building products certification field. Today it announced its purchase of the Greenguard indoor air quality certifications and the two organizations behind them. The announcement follows UL Environment’s August 2010 acquisition of Canada’s EcoLogo, one of the oldest eco-labels in the field (see “UL Environment Teams Up with EcoLogo”). UL Environment’s acquisition of Greenguard accompanied its purchase of both Air Quality Sciences, Inc. (AQS) and the Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI). AQS, founded in 1989, is a product emissions testing laboratory that launched the Greenguard label in 2000 as a way of recognizing products that AQS tested and found to have low emissions of indoor air pollutants. In 2001, AQS sought to give the Greenguard program more independence by creating the nonprofit GEI to run it. Together AQS and GEI have made Greenguard one of the most recognized indoor air quality labels in the building products industry. According to a press release from Greenguard, the program has 350 manufacturer participants, and more than 10,000 certified products. Greenguard has two widely recognized product certifications: the basic Greenguard Indoor Air Quality, and the far-more-stringent Greenguard Children and Schools, both of which cover building materials, finishes, furnishings, electronic equipment, and cleaners. It also has a program to certify building construction methods that minimize moisture problems. “This acquisition combines AQS’s world-class technology and expertise, as well as Greenguard’s brand recognition and scientific rigor, with UL’s trusted history of standards development, testing, and compliance to create a more comprehensive solution for testing and certification,” said Steve Wenc, president of UL Environment, in a press release. Marilyn Black, Ph.D., chair of Atlanta-based AQS and founder of GEI, said that she hoped that together with UL, the organizations “will boost consumer confidence in the green product marketplace.” Black also said that the partnership “will allow us to enhance our position as the North American indoor air quality market leader and help us expand our reach into the global market.” UL, an independent product safety certification group founded in 1894, opened its environmental unit in 2009. While the long-term impact of the move is still to be seen, EBN noted at the time that UL’s history and brand recognition could help address widespread confusion in the green products certification world (see “Underwriters Laboratories to Validate Environmental Claims,” EBNJan. 2009). As it now also flexes financial and business muscles, UL Environment may be closer to doing that. UL Environment performs its own environmental claims validation and has an ambitious program to roll out multiple multi-attribute environmental standards for specific building product categories, including drywall, insulation, and roofing. When it acquired EcoLogo and Terrachoice, the organization behind it, UL Environment said that it would maintain the EcoLogo brand and programs, while synchronizing EcoLogo’s efforts with its own. UL has not yet signaled whether it will take a similar approach with Greenguard. The combined acquisition of AQS and GEI highlights the murky relationship between the two organizations. AQS’s role as a consultant to manufacturers compromised its ability to provide independent third-party certification. That’s why it made sense for AQS to hand off Greenguard to GEI in 2001, but the relationship between AQS and GEI remains very close, and competing testing labs long complained that GEI resisted defining its standards clearly enough for companies other than AQS, which helped develop the standards, to use. Reposted from: http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2011/2/2/UL-Environment-Buys-Greenguard/
Posted in Green News