BuildingGreen, Inc

Our purpose is to foster a thriving and equitable world through a regenerative and resilient built environment.

We exist in service of a movement that can transform the building industry into a force for positive change. Active in the fray since 1985, we support, facilitate, and champion the changemakers in sustainable design and building.

As the trusted source for guidance on healthy and sustainable products and strategies, we support professionals with knowledge, guidance, CEUs, and industry news via BuildingGreen.com and at LEEDuser.com. We also provide consulting and training services, including facilitation, workshops, project support and guidance, and product vetting for firms, owners, and other sustainability professionals.

We leverage the value of our information resources and consulting work by convening and facilitating professional peer networks for sustainability leaders, creating a safe space for open sharing among peers, common problem solving, and networking/support that we facilitate both online and at annual in-person summits.

Our focus is on helping you design and build from a whole-systems' perspective. We support teams in using an integrative process that reduces ecological impact—or even provides regenerative support for ecosystems—and maximizes return on investment.

As a Certified B Corp, BuildingGreen is mission-driven. Any profits become a means to facilitate change, not just fuel the bottom line.

From the beginning, we turned down advertising and sponsorships in our publications, maintaining an exclusive focus on providing unbiased, trustworthy information and guidance to subscribers and members.

History

In the early 1980s, long before “green building” or “sustainability” were in vogue, Alex Wilson saw the need for a company that would translate technical information on energy efficiency and other environmental topics for the public and building professionals.

Working at first out of a timber-framed barn in Vermont, Alex later brought on partner Nadav Malin and together they launched Environmental Building News. Predating the U.S. Green Building Council by one year and LEED by several, EBN became the bible of the emerging green building movement, quickly finding subscribers in all 50 states and around the globe.

By the late 90s, some architecture firms and other organizations were so motivated to make BuildingGreen’s library of content available throughout their offices that we were mailing disks for them to install on their local networks before the internet made our ever-growing content more easily accessible. By 1997, BuildingGreen expanded a niche of our newsletter into a full-fledged product screening service, GreenSpec, which continues to set a stringent bar for health and sustainability in products today.

As the company grew through the 2000s, we added expertise in building science, process facilitation, and LEED. Experts at the now 15-person firm continuously stay abreast of the rapidly evolving products and materials field.

BuildingGreen’s knowledge base and guidance reaches thousands of design firms, college campuses, teams, and individual professionals, including more than 200 architectural firms, government agencies, nonprofits, and universities.

Our hands-on, practical work on individual buildings and major projects informs the incisive insights we offer our members, and our expertise in putting actionable intelligence in the hands of professionals informs the advice we offer our clients.