Green Building Initiative – Origin, Mission and Guiding Principles of GBI

 

Originally, The Green Building Initiative was envisaged as a means to make green the norm for building and remodeling. The plan was that the Initiative would accomplish this by assisting Home Builder Associations in developing eco-friendly building projects using the National Association of Home Builders' Model Green Home Building Guidelines.

 

An opening came up while the Green Building Initiative was working on a strategic alliance with the NAHB, to bring an innovative and educational tool developed in Canada to commercial builders in the United States. The GBI confirmed their contract close to the end of 2004, to carry the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating tool into the U.S. market.

 

The Green Building Initiative has profited from the early support of a core group of industries that are dedicated to going forward with green building interest groups by producing a range of realistic eco-friendly alternatives for their typical builder clients. Interests from such areas as financial services, merchants, wholesalers, appliance makers and other insulation and building material suppliers, plus associations like the Wood Promotion Network have all come forward to offer early support for the efforts of the Initiative. The GBI plans to increasingly expand its economic base with equally dedicated companies and associations.

 

A multi-stakeholder board governs the Green Building Initiative, made up of fifteen directors featuring representatives from manufacturing, NGOs, building companies, architectural firms and educational institution. No single entity or person has more power than any other, since each board member has only one vote. The GBI aims to eventually expand the board to thirty members, consisting of ten producers, ten users and ten concerned parties.

 

The GBI does most of its marketing to conventional builders, designers, and developers, most of whom do not yet practice green building. Once these guidelines are more widely accepted, innovations such as renewable energy for homes and rainwater collecting systems will become the norm.