WELCOME LETTER
By Sara Gutterman
At Last, Information You Can Share
This is it. The shape of things to come. You’re holding the very first issue of a major redesign of our magazine. But it’s not just paper and layouts that have changed. It’s the concept of our role as the vanguard of the sustainable building movement. Our new design—which extends to every one of our monthly issues—brings together old and new.
Gone are the days of throwaway magazines. Each month, we’ll provide valuable, reusable information—not just a snapshot of the latest gadget. This issue, for example, has been carefully planned as a tool for builders who want to educate clients about the basic principles and products of sustainable construction. It’s a turnkey, easy-to-read primer for anyone who has dreamed of building an eco-friendly home or remodeling a drafty farmhouse.
If you’re wondering how to share the copy in your hand with clients or friends, we’ve worked that out, too—thanks to new technology. Not only can you download the entire magazine in PDF format from our website www.greenbuildermag.com and send it by email to friends and clients, but you can also access it through your smartphone.
We’ve also leveraged new technology in an exciting new way: All of our products now include a unique barcode. By pointing your smartphone at the code, you can scan it and be taken to a menu of options.
We plan to provide product specs, installation videos, databases of distributors, and more. Just download the ScanLife application to your phone or computer (the app is preloaded on some Sprint and Verizon phones), scan the bar code, and you’ll be taken to the information embedded within the code.
It’s only fitting that Green Builder is the first to grasp how old information technologies and new technologies can coexist. We were the first dedicated publication focused on sustainable development, and we’ve been able to maintain our solid leadership position by delivering the highest quality, most innovative content available on the market today.
When we first launched Green Builder magazine in 2006, we covered the fundamentals of green building by defining green products, projects, practices, and programs. Now, as the market has evolved and sustainability has permeated all industries within our economy, so, too, has our message. From this issue forward, we are raising the bar on ourselves and expanding our forward-thinking coverage.
We’re thinking bigger.
We know that, like great homes and products, a magazine needs to push for a longer life cycle and better performance. Therefore, we are taking Green Builder magazine to a new dimension, purposefully transforming each issue into a themed guide, enabling you to build a reference library.
And it’s not just our content that is changing. Our goal at Green Builder Media is to affect positive change within the building industry and beyond. Our mission is to increase awareness that the natural and built environments are intricately linked, and that the improvement of one restores the other. Our mantra is to constantly reinvent ourselves, remain- ing on the leading edge of sustainability so that we can deliver relevant, interesting, and visionary content to our readers.
Our commitment is unwavering and our task is clear: to continue exploring the frontiers of sustainability. We are pleased you’re here to join us for this wildly exciting journey into the future. Please share your thoughts with me about how Green Builder magazine can deliver the most useful content about sustainable living at sara@greenbuilermag.com or join me on Twitter at SaraGBM.