Sustainable Industries announced its top 10 green building products for 2009. Products include windows, woods, and water efficient fixtures.

One of the unique features of Sustainable Industries' award list is that it includes details about which LEED credits the product would help achieve. For example, RainTube, a rain gutter filter, can help achieve Materials and Resources credit 4.2 under the New Construction program.

Constructed from 100 percent post-consumer milk jugs, the tube provides a way to reuse a product and decrease the need for raw materials.

Another winner is the Inspire Wall, an aluminum panel that funnels warm outside air before sending it indoors to heat the building. Aptly, this product helps achieve energy credits under LEED as it reduces the amount of and maybe even need for a conventional heating system.

PlybooPure Bamboo is the only plywood made from bamboo certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and also helps to achieve materials and resources credits under LEED.

This award list considers many young companies. Why? Innovation. While many contractors are tried and true to products they know well and have worked with time and time again, in the green building field, older generations of products may not achieve LEED or other green standards credits. In the green industry, many products get their start as part of a LEED project because it is pioneering and at the very least, may earn an innovation credit under LEED. Green buildings are like ongoing experiments testing which products will maintain their intended purpose, which ones will outperform. The 2009 winners are on their way to testing those parameters.