Message from the Executive Director

Welcome to the first edition of GBI Insight—a monthly source of green building news and information created for mainstream design and construction professionals.

Our mandate at the GBI is to increase adoption of green building practices by providing credible and practical approaches for mainstream designers and builders. Green building makes good economic as well as environmental sense. Therefore, it’s an approach to design and construction that we believe will become the norm instead of the exception. Our goal is to help make that happen faster by reaching out to the masses with affordable and effective options for creating more efficient, comfortable and healthier homes and commercial buildings.
Moving forward, this newsletter will feature practical “how to” advice, as well as relevant news from across the country, market and consumer research, and highlights of GBI activities.

GBI’s efforts to facilitate widespread adoption of green building practices cover both residential and commercial construction. Our two main roles are to work with home builder associations to develop localized green building programs based on the National Association of Home Builders’ Model Green Home Building Guidelines, and to encourage use of the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system for commercial buildings.

As a fairly new organization, we recognize that it’s up to us to demonstrate our credibility. Since our official launch last January, we’ve taken two major steps in this regard—creating a multi-stakeholder board of directors and becoming the first green building organization to be accredited as a standards developer by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Our ANSI status in particular received a lot of attention from the environmental design and building community, media, regulators and corporations moving toward green certification. It also enabled us to begin the process of establishing the Green Globes system as the first ANSI-accredited green building standard.

I hope you find this newsletter informative and useful, and that you’ll continue to support our efforts to “green the mainstream.”

Sincerely,

Ward Hubbell
Executive Director
Green Building Initiative