Environmentally Friendly Homes What is green Building? We often hear about “going green” or building “green home”, but what does that really mean? American Olean has an answer with it comes to their building products. So if you want to go green when you build or remodel your home, here is how American Olean defines the term.   “There are a number of green homebuilding programs out there, and while each is unique, they all use the following when defining what "green building" means:    -Site design  -Energy efficiency  -Water conservation  -Indoor air quality  -Environmentally preferable materials  -Operations and maintenance Our products can help qualify under many of the industry-leading green building programs, in addition to local and state green building initiatives. Specifically, using American Olean products can help you in two major areas – indoor air quality and environmentally preferable materials. Indoor Air Quality Except for the walls, floors usually account for more surface area than anything else in a house, so they have a greater effect on indoor air quality. Adults, children and pets walk, play and sit on them, wear them down and breathe in what they emit for many years.  Most tile glazes are water based and use minimal amounts of solvents. Once fired, the tile and glaze are completely fused and there is no possibility of volatile gas emmissions. Our manufactured tile products have been tested and are compliant with the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Low-Emitting Material Standard. Environmentally Preferable Materials The choice of building materials is important for sustainable homebuilding because of the extensive network of extraction, processing and transportation they require. Recycled-content materials reuse waste products that would otherwise be deposited in landfills. And use of local materials supports the local economy and reduces the harmful impacts of long-distance transport. More than 97% of Americn Olean's manufactured products contain pre-consumer (post-industrial) recycled materials. Our eight manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico provide the opportunity for our products and raw materials to be closer to more building projects, thus conserving fossil fuels required for transportation. We offer real-time information on recycled materials content and information on whether or not your home or project falls within a 500 mile radius of one of our plants, making it easy for you select the material that best meets your needs.”