3 coolest products from world's largest green building show

The Greenbuild Conference and Expo is the world's largest trade show in the green movement. It is the place where 40,000 people gather to learn about some of the most innovative products that can help us design a better future. While there is a lot to distract one at Greenbuild, there's always a few standout products that offer a path toward true sustainability in our homes.

The 2014 Greenbuild was in New Orleans and featured over 500 vendors. Many booths were depressingly green-washed, attempting to present an environmentally responsible image while peddling products that were toxic or destructive to the environment. But others looked truly exciting.

Here's is my 2014 list of a few of the stand-out products that can help us create life-enhancing homes.

Whirlpool Heat Pump Clothes Dryer

Oh boy. For me, seeing this innovative appliance at the Whirlpool booth was like meeting a celebrity. I hugged it. Really. Somewhere there are cell phone pictures to prove it.

The conventional clothes dryer is possibly the single most wasteful appliance in our homes. Conventional clothes dryers waste over $4 billion dollars worth of energy each year in the United States. Yet we're not inspired by the thought of hanging our clothes out to dry. That's why creating an efficient and high performance dryer is vital to help us meet our net zero energy goals.

The new Whirlpool brand Duet model WED87HED steam dryer offers unprecedented energy flexibility. If you put a load in at night and don't mind a bit longer dry time, you can set it to Eco mode and optimize energy savings. If you're in a hurry then you can set it to Speed mode. There is no old-school dryer that can match this kind of performance and efficiency.

Sylvania Lightify

LIGHTIFY Smart Connected Lighting Ecosystems is an exciting step toward the internet of things. It's an integrated LED lighting system that is efficient and offers flexible controls that not only help create beautiful home lighting, but also help minimize energy use. I love anything that offers a better experience for less energy.

The possibilities for control are endless. You can use your phone to program the lights to go on when it rains and to text you when the lights turn off.

The OSRAM SYLVANIA booth at Greenbuild was also recognized as "Most Innovative" for its commitment to best practices in corporate responsibility.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saJQLhfDcNM

RMS Rainwater Management Solutions

Our water infrastructure in the United States is at the end of its useful life span. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our water treatment and our waste treatment a Grade D and estimates that it would take over 1 trillion dollars to repair our current system.

Cities across the country have experienced system wide failures that have effectively shut off the taps of every household. Many cities in the west and southwest are experiencing catastrophic drought conditions that have made it difficult to get fresh drinking water in some areas.

That's why I'm impressed with the variety of off-the-shelf technology from folks like RMS Rainwater Management Solutions. At Greenbuild they exhibited several simple, yet game changing, products that can transform our water infrastructure.

RMS offers systems designed to harvest and treat rainwater to meet the strictest drinking water standards. Water is captured on rooftops, screened and stored in cisterns, then treated in purification systems and distributed throughout the building.

More about Greenbuild: http://greenbuildexpo.com/