It All Happened So Fast

By now you may have noticed that we are celebrating our 20th Anniversary at Green Builder Media in 2025.

Our premier issue of Green Builder magazine appeared in January 2006, but Sara and I had incorporated the company the previous Spring and worked hard through the intervening months so we could make a big splash at the 2006 International Builders Show (IBS).

At the time, there were plenty of people who didn’t think we would survive for 20 weeks, never mind a score of years and counting. But in the immortal words of author Victor Hugo, “Nothing else in the world … not all the armies … is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” 

Of course, there was no way to be certain that our timing was right. But by the time we took the plunge, the intent of the project was already a decade old. There had been a great deal of patience exercised, because the industry marketplace was simply not prepared for all the changes that were about to take place.

In 1996, I engaged the services of a very capable intellectual properties attorney to help me attempt to secure the trademark GREEN BUILDER. He cautioned me that it might be especially difficult to succeed in the effort because of the quite generic nature of the terms, but I had nothing to lose except time and money. We submitted the application as required and waited for the results. It was 1999 before the trademark was initially awarded (it became “incontestable” in 2005) and I began to use it in every opportunity I encountered. 

In some ways, owning a trademark is like having a large carnivore for a pet. It has to be fed regularly. Intellectual property such as this must be put to use and must be defended from unauthorized use as necessary. It’s a “use it or lose it” proposition.

Some of our readers may recall that I authored a monthly column in another prominent industry publication for a time. The column was well received by readers. But it was quite apparent that the mainstream home building industry, including the building products manufacturers, were only beginning to timidly dip a toe into the scary new pool of sustainable development and green building.  

By the time the National Green Building Standard (ICC-700) and the USGBC LEED for Homes rating system were ready for participants and project certifications, we were light years ahead of the legacy industry media companies. While they were mumbling about green building, trying to come up with their own definitions and how to communicate them with the players in the industry, we were already opening green demonstration projects at major national events around the country.     

It seems we were always ahead or our time, for better or worse, so when the pandemic disrupted the traditional ways that companies operated and how their work gets accomplished, we were already firmly anchored to our remote work model (often much to the chagrin of potential investors and advisers who didn’t approve). This allowed us to attract some of the best talent in the business and provide them with the atypical luxuries of working from home and exceptional schedule flexibility.

This has made it possible for us to assemble an extraordinarily talented team of like-minded, mission-driven professionals who tirelessly pursue their individual and collective passion for remaking the built environment so we can all inhabit a place of balance and abundance.

We are blessed with the undying support of so many great people and companies in this incredibly dynamic universe we know as home building. With the ever-increasing challenges related to climate change and the degradation of the planet’s ecological systems—and with continued hard work, a great deal of luck, an unyielding commitment to integrity, and most of all, the efforts of everyone dedicated to sustainability—we can’t wait to start another decade of our pursuit of the best possible world. 

Publisher’s Note: Green Builder's 20th Anniversary celebration is sponsored by: Carrier and Trex.