The Power of Green

My personal "green roots" came from my upbringing by my Grandfather, who was the son of a Montevallo, Alabama dairy farmer, and my Dad, who was an ardent conservationist/environmentalist and locally popular Boy Scout Master of many years. When I was in Junior High School, my favorite poem was "Trees", by Alfred Joyce Kilmer, and my best friend nearly killed (figuratively) me and a few of my friends by his fascination of hiking through the Joyce Kilmer National Forest each year. Nothing against the park, but it never failed that whenever we travelled up to the Smokies the weather always, always ruled. At any rate, something clicked back then that may or may have been associated with the mid 1800's environmentalism-philosophical movement, the lifetime conservationist achievements of Theodore Roosevelt, or even the author of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's, or the Sierra Club's heroic activism in the more contemporary "green" movements. The sense is still with me, wherever it originated. It resonates with many of my friends too, as they battle ever-increasing utility costs and desire to leave their children and grandchildren a better environment than was left to them. Today, the modern banner to this nearly two hundred year eco-friendly "ism" is popularly referred to as "going green". It's cool, trendy, energy efficient, and in some cases, can provide tax incentives to active participants.

As a licensed builder, coupled by trying to keep up with the times and survive the downturn, I have been school-trained in green design-build techniques, devour trade shows and magazines marketing the newest eco-friendly and sustainable design products, and run my projects in as a environmentally friendly manner as is practicable. I have recently joined forces with Arch Trulock, who is a licensed Architect in Birmingham, Alabama by creating an eco-friendly design-build partnership. Our partnership is being called Alabama Green Design Works, LLC, and it's infant homepage is at algreendesignworks.com. For the moment, visitors can follow a useful link back to our repsective homepages at either Trulockarchitecture.com, or raybuildingcomany.com. Arch and I have very basic similarities with each other, which have been mentioned above. We are both professional's in our trades, we are environmentally conscientious, and we both seriously want to make a positive impact in our community by incorporating green building technologies and increased awareness on sustainable building practices. The new relationship is refreshing in that we can both benefit from our respective strengths in both design and build, and have a deeper sense of accomplishment as we help our clients and the environment at the same time.   

As Arch and I continue to develop our own website at www.algreendesignworks.com without infringing on other "green" organizations previous hard work and copyright protections, anyone that is looking for similar information along our intended path should visit www.greendesignbuild.net. It really is a one-stop "green" website that features practical solutions ranging from do-it-yourself energy saving tips, to full-blown systems overhaul. If you really have a lot of time on your hands you can visit UC Berkeley's website at www.lib.berkeley.edu for an endless catalog, or library of just about any pertinent environmental resource in publication. Another relatively new acronym that is flying around out there is LEED, or LEED Certified. To become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environemental Design) Certified, the professional designer, or builder, has to particiapte in a standardized training regimen and satisfactorily pass the appropriate end of course exam. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) is an governing agency of the LEED Certification Program, and is responsible for the promulgation of standards and policies, as well as continued education on sustainable design and other eco-friendly issues in the construction industry. Please see www.usgbc.org for more information on the LEED program.

Please call either Arch or me for more design-build information.

Be Responsible.....Be Informed.....Be Involved!