Welcome to the first edition of the Green Building Pro Journal and the launch of our new site dedicated to green building professionals.  My name is Jenica Egan and I am the editor of this publication, one that has been a labor of love for me for over a year.  

I became interested in green building while remodeling and adding space to my once 900 sq. ft. home, a box built in the late 40’s.   While we didn’t start out with the intention of reaching a green goal, our new home reached well over 30% Title 24 standards here in California.  

This experience was the catalyst for me to explore green elements in construction. Neither my contractor or Architect were LEED certified and didn’t always know what all the green options were.  But or Architect worked hard and by asking questions along the way, our project was able to evolve and grow green with each step. While we are still waiting for the money to install our solar panels, we did manage to wire for the potential installation.  

My goal with this site is to provide all green building professionals a place to visit, join a community of like-minded professionals to share, educate, learn and collaborate together on a common goal to make sustainability and best building practices available and main-stream for everyone.  

In this first edition you’ll find new blogs from our community blogs, a case study on the use of the Big Belly solar trash can in Philadelphia. Jordan Sager joins us to discuss UCSB’s approach to LEED certification and we have video coverage with Marc Heisterkamp from USGBC on controlling costs from a green perspective.

I hope you enjoy Green Building Pro and I look forward to your comments.

Jenica Egan
Editor - Green Building Pro