Accordingly, Rao remains cautious about housing-related sectors such as furnishings, hardware and building materials.

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Nearly all historic efforts to reduce building energy use have focused on either human factors (change behaviors with tax incentives or regulations) or hardware (use better building materials, improve systems like the cooling and lights, etc.).

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They provide everything from advanced military hardware and components to relatively prosaic materials and supplies.

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Mike Taylor, of e-learning company Equiinet, said schools should be allowed to spend their "e-learning credits" on hardware that would run such media-rich materials.

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The Distribution and Retail Business segment manages home centers and shops that sell tools, hardware, daily necessities, do-it-yourself products, gardening and building materials, and pet supplies.

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