"Robert (F.) Fox (Jr.), told an audience at the Greenbuild conference in Portland, Ore. that a one percent increase in productivity translates into $10 million savings. The impact of what we are doing today in the development of ‘integrated' systems is huge," Warnock says.

"When the circle is completed, when systems can be shown to be effective, not only in terms of energy management, but also in terms of productivity gains, you will really see the ‘green' movement taking off."

That's the big picture. The micro-look at the shadings industry reveals its attention to detail. Like other manufacturers, Hunter Douglas is reforming window shades to eliminate PVC-based fabrics. "PVC has had a lot of advantages," Warnock says, "and it has taken a long time to find substitutes."

PVC also held its shape well, a crucial factor for success in shading. Some manufacturers now use a glass-fiber yarn that will remain perfectly flat and will not stretch or contract even under heat from the sun's rays.

The USGBC's Fedrizzi believes the efficiencies being achieved by sustainable builders with a finger on the pulse of new technology are but the tip of the iceberg, and that, within 10 years, building design will be dramatically reformed.

Green building, he says, has forced a closer look at what building material manufacturers can do. "In the process, we have found new technologies, new combinations of technologies, and we have forever changed our ways of looking at building construction."

"Today's projects have provided field-testing, if you will, for hundreds of new technologies in a building industry not historically known for research and development," says Christine Ervin, a former energy assistant to the Clinton administration and former head of the Green Building Council.

"There remains a disparity," Ervin says, between ‘the best in architectural design' and ‘the best sustainable design.' When sustainability becomes a criteria of the Pritzker Prize, it will be a bellwether for the architectural community."

What is leading-edge today, especially in the realm of lighting control, soon will be considered routine, says Lutron's Myers.

The scramble to build a better mousetrap is hastening, say "green" product manufacturers, because builders, finally, have begun searching for mousetraps.