As we all work to help connect the links within the building supply chain around “green” or “sustainability” as it may be, there is such an obvious issue in the lack of general, tried-and-true information. You remember when our parents and teachers said, “There is no such thing as a bad question”? Well, they weren’t dealing with the green building of today. Honestly, half our confusion stems from the fact that so many are asking questions without knowing what they are truly asking or why they are even asking it.

So, for the sake of moving one step closer to making sustainability part of our every day business, when you are asked a question, no matter how self assured the asker seems, ask them why?, what are you trying to achieve?, who wants it?, et cetera. Get to the root of the need, and then you can meet it directly with a solution and, without confusion. Once you have the root you can help your customer grow from there to create a sustainable end product.

For this to work, you need to...

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It is about time for those of us who call ourselves sustainability leaders to take charge of technology today and use it to be “greener”. There are so many opportunities for us to do so from complete replacement of current lighting systems with energy efficient lighting systems activated by motion detectors in our warehouses (www.greenspeedenergy.com) to taking our “green” events online through cutting edge companies like www.unisfair.com.

By taking our events online, we facilitate the simplistic spread of information without printing or travel. This is called viral communications. We create an opportunity for anyone to partake no matter what their schedule is and at their own leisure. We need to take a lesson from the emerging ranks of the Millennial generation Y generation and embrace instant messaging interactivity at its finest.

Believe it or not, at BlueLinx, we are...

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Green, sustainability, eco-friendly, LEED, smart building, high performance, and so on and so on are all buzz words floating relentlessly through our businesses. It is no wonder we have difficulty understanding the market, when we can’t even agree on a name for it. Until there is a clear and concise universal definition, how can any of us decide what we are going to do about it much less what role we want to play? For today’s sake, what are the consequences of standing like a deer caught in headlights vs. taking an action?

Of course, there are various shades of green. Your own definition will surely be unique when compared to others. It is important to determine what your stance or role will be, and then seek out the communities that support your vision. Let me give it a shot in order to provide you with a basic foundation.

“Green Building is the implementation of building design and construction that cultivates efficiencies across the supply chain delivering sustainability, lower resource use, lower waste, increase productivity, increase value, increase in health, lower energy use… enhancing long term value while preserving the global environment.”

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