Brattleboro, Vermont-based BuildingGreen, LLC, just announced the launch of GreenBuildingAdvisor.com. Accessing the nation's oldest, deepest database of green-building expertise, GreenBuildingAdvisor.com immediately establishes itself as the nation's foremost Web-based source of how to build and remodel green homes.
The site is built around nearly 1,000 construction drawings-based on the best of building science-that detail proven ways to achieve impressive energy performance and sustainability in affordable, attractive, healthful homes for a variety of climates. Just as important, the site integrates these proven designs with field tips, notes on building codes, installation videos, qualified green products, detailed real-world examples of green homes, and much more.
Two other unique features of GreenBuildingAdvisor.com are the green-product choices and product category guidance provided by BuildingGreen's GreenSpec®-an industry-leading source of unbiased green-product picks for more than a decade-and the contributions of the green-practitioner Advisory Board. The 15 members are some of the leading green professionals in the nation-working builders, remodelers, architects, and engineers-who contribute to the site by blogging, answering questions, and writing articles.
GreenBuildingAdvisor.com's online knowledge suite (a substantial portion of which is offered at no charge) targets residential professionals, including remodelers, builders, and architects; but it is also invaluable for knowledgeable homeowners looking to build or remodel green. The site's Green Basics section offers an expansive but easy-to-understand encyclopedia of green design and construction that will benefit both professionals and homeowners wanting to increase their knowledge.
"Our goal is to provide all the real-world tools-qualified green products, design and construction details, and the practical knowledge of our Green Building Advisors and the site's community-in one place to anyone who wants to design and build green," said GreenBuildingAdvisor.com's Peter Yost. "It's no longer necessary to search dozens of sources to find the most useful information and up-to-date advice."
GreenBuildingAdvisor.com builds on the decades of experience and depth of the two partner companies that came together to create this resource: 23-year-old BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec® product directory and TheTaunton Press, publisher of Fine Homebuilding. Accessing the deep BuildingGreen database, and the 28-year building expertise and graphic presentation resources of Fine Homebuilding, GreenBuildingAdvisor.com is by far the most comprehensive, useful, and easy-to-use online resource serving the residential green design and building community.
GreenBuildingAdvisor.com has seven primary components:
Green basics: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com offers a broad, easy-to-understand green-building resource that covers the fundamentals of building green.
Green-product guide: The industry's leading unbiased green-building product directory, GreenSpec, provides guidance on how to think about product categories from a green perspective as well as how to make product and material choices, cross-linked to other aspects of the GreenBuildingAdvisor.com site.
Construction details: In an industry first, GreenBuildingAdvisor.com offers nearly 1,000 home-construction-detail drawings based on proven principles of building science for all climates and situations. Users can digitally "paste" these files into architectural drawings or print them out for subcontractors.
Green building strategy generator: Users can enter information about a building project, and GreenBuildingAdvisor.com will generate specific "greening" strategies, which are then linked to products and details.
In-depth advice: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com is a forum for the exchange of information through blogs, discussions, and Q&A. In addition, the site's 15 Green Building Advisors-some of the nation's leading green practitioners-are continuous contributors. The website also links to detailed background information from Fine Homebuilding and Environmental Building News.
Code issues: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com will serve as a clearinghouse for information and advice on building codes as they relate to green building. This provides clear, concise advice on dealing with the code-approval process.
Real-world examples: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com provides a place to see how green-building practices are being successfully used in homes nationwide, including new construction and remodeling.
GreenBuildingAdvisor.com's free content includes product discussions, case studies, news, blogs, a community forum, and more. Full access to the site, which includes a deeper dive into product choices, construction details, and more, requires membership as a GBA Pro on either a monthly ($15 per month) or annual ($149.99 per year) basis.
In addition to online delivery, a monthly print newsletter-GreenBuildingAdvisor.com INSIDER-will be provided to GBA Pro members. "We will encourage folks to read it online," says managing editor Dan Morrison. "But for GBA Pro members who still want to hold something in their hands, we have made it easy to download and print-or we will mail it." Martin Holladay, until recently the editor of Energy Design Update, will head up GreenBuildingAdvisor.com INSIDER coverage.
At the heart of all these components of GreenBuildingAdvisor.com are the "Green Building Advisors"-15 of the nation's leading experts on green building, green remodeling, energy efficiency, and building science. This team includes builder John Abrams of South Mountain Company on Martha's Vineyard; building-science authority Joe Lstiburek of Building Science Corp. of Westford, MA; remodeling contractor Eric Doub of Boulder, CO, who specializes in carbon-neutral houses and renewable energy; architect and green-building materials expert Ann Edminster of Pacifica, CA; architect and used building-materials expert Jennifer Corson of Halifax, Nova Scotia; green-remodeling consultant Carl Seville of Decatur, GA; building inspector Lynn Underwood of Norfolk, VA; developer Vernon McKown of Ideal Homes in Norman, OK; remodeling contractor and longtime contributing editor to Fine Homebuilding, Mike Guertin of East Greenwich, RI; and natural-building expert and structural engineer Bruce King of San Rafael, CA. The full list of Advisors can be found at GreenBuildingAdvisor.com.
Alex Wilson, founder and president of BuildingGreen, sums up the need he saw for GreenBuildingAdvisor.com. "Since we launched Environmental Building News nearly 18 years ago, we have covered both residential and commercial green building," he said. "As the green-building industry has matured, it became clear that we needed to target readers more precisely. With GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, we are doing just that. I'm convinced that the building industry will quickly come to rely on this website as the most trusted, most useful, and most comprehensive resource on residential green building."
About BuildingGreen, LLC
BuildingGreen has been providing the building industry with quality information on sustainable design and construction since its founding in 1985. BuildingGreen's publications include Environmental Building News; the GreenSpec Directory of green building products; and the BuildingGreen Suite of online resources. In early 2008, BuildingGreen entered into a partnership with The Taunton Press. For information, visit
www.BuildingGreen.com , or call 802-257-7300.
