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I recently attended the National Lumber & Building Materials Dealers Association (NLBMDA) and National Building Materials Distributors Association (NBMDA) Legislative Conference and Green Building Forum in Washington, DC, and wow that’s a mouthful. The focus of this first-ever joint conference and legislative event was to allow members to learn about green building and find common ground to approach their respective members of congress. Appropriately the green building forum was held on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, and was led by Peter Yost of BuildingGreen, LLC. Peter introduced the attendees to a new tool called the GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, which was developed through a partnership between Fine Homebuilding and Environmental Building News, bringing the collective expertise of those publications into one resource which is described as, “an online suite of expert advice, proven construction details, and real-world tools to help residential architects, builders, remodelers, and others successfully to build and remodel high-quality homes, the green way.” Peter is a firm believer that green building needs to equal quality, and he envisions that as the industry matures, quality will be further integrated with green design and construction practices.

The next session included a panel of representatives from United States Green Building Council (USGBC), National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), and the Green Building Initiative. They were given an opportunity to introduce their respective programs to the audience and provide us with new developments. Noteworthy developments include LEED v3 (a new version of the standard), NAHB Research Center ‘Green Approved’ product seal, and ANSI approved Green Globes process. The NAHB Research Center’s “Green-Approved” product seal is being offered to manufacturers as a method to easily and effectively communicate that their products merit certain credits within the NAHB Standards and are available for specific points. All of these organizations were started at different times, by different sets of stakeholders, with different visions of the future, and different definitions of what a green building program should reward. The competitiveness of these organizations may be confusing at first glance but it’s that competitiveness that drives improvements within their programs and which leads to a greener built environment.

The final presenters provided the perspectives of how the green building industry is shaping new business opportunities for a distributor and a dealer, Bluelinx and Fairfax Lumber & Hardware respectively. Both speakers were upbeat about the business opportunities and they admitted that there is a learning curve to becoming familiar with the new industry and business but they were confident that this leadership role has given their companies a competitive advantage. The learning curve is not simply internally focused on their own companies however both expressed a serious need for them to provide their customers with information about the green credentials of a product and how that might fit into a green building program’s scoring system.

As the conference wound down it was quite obvious that three themes had risen to the top. Green building and green building products need to equal quality; there are competing green building programs in the industry providing the end-users with different benefits; and the companies that are succeeding in this market are leaders who are taking the time to educate themselves and their customers about the interaction between their green products and the customer’s green project. Quality, competitiveness, and leadership – those are characteristics that will redefine the North American home building supply and construction business in this new era.

With the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (‘the Act’), signed into law on February 17, the federal government is making an effort to re-invigorate our economy and improve our infrastructure. There are over $140 billion in infrastructure improvements covering a wide range of projects: three general categories should be very interesting to green building material suppliers. These include: federal building revitalizations, educational building renovations, and tax incentives for making homes more energy efficient.

Becoming familiar with how these provisions will drive business or allow dealers to develop new business is critical to becoming a part of the future. Here is a breakdown on each area and the green products or green building requirements.

Federal Building Revitalization
The Act provides the General Services Administration (GSA) with $4.5 billion to be spent on “construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings for projects that will create the greatest impact on energy efficiency and conservation.” The GSA has already established that USGBC’s LEED rating system must be used as a design criterion for all capital projects. Each project must have a goal of Silver certification. The GSA has developed the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings to assist with the coordination of transitioning the federal building stock to high-performance green buildings. It is unclear which projects will be seeking USGBC’s LEED-New Construction (NC) or LEED-Existing Building (EB), but learning which products are listed in these checklists and making them available could certainly drive some business to your counter.

Education Building Renovations
The federal government has provided close to $8.8 billion to the nation’s governors – who are strapped by low tax revenues – to ensure they will not need to increase taxes or moth-ball vital improvements to schools. These funds can be used for school modernization, renovation, and repair of elementary, secondary, and higher education facilities; new construction, however, will not be eligible. These projects will need to incorporate a number of green features; and their design, construction, and operations/maintenance will need to be in compliance with one of the recognized green building standards (LEED, CHPS, or Green Globes).

Tax Incentives for Making Homes More Energy-Efficient
Within the tax provisions of the Act are numerous avenues for homeowners and homebuilders to receive tax credits for energy-efficient improvements made to existing or newly built homes. For homeowners, these improvements can include energy-efficient windows, doors, insulation, roofing, HVAC systems, geo-thermal heat pumps, water heaters, biomass, solar energy systems, small wind energy systems, or fuel cells. For each product category, Energy Star – the joint program of the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – maintains specific tax credit language. The ‘Tax Credit Specification’ will further detail the performance measures required to earn the tax credit for each product installed.

For homebuilders, tax credits can be achieved on new home construction through the inclusion of energy-efficient heating and cooling measures. These are not new tax credits but many builders may still be unaware of this incentive. Recent studies have proven that energy-efficiency updates to homes are a wise investment for the current residents and for future sales. Homes with above average energy efficiency can certainly be more appealing than homes without these improvements. I know from living in Portland, OR, the majority of existing homes could be vastly improved by simply insulating them. A second wave of improvements could come in the form of improved windows and doors. To learn more about these programs please review the details at www.energystar.gov.

These are a few of the initiatives included in ‘the Act’ that will further develop green building industries while improving our government, educational, and residential infrastructure; and lessening our dependence on fossil fuel derived energy and heat. This is the chance for building product dealers to learn about green opportunities, educate their employees about these opportunities, and connect with customers seeking to improve their buildings with green products.

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Forest Products Solutions provides companies with the services and tools to improve the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of FSC-certified and related green building products. To learn more about Terry Campbell and Forest Products Solutions go to: www.forestproductssolutions.com or visit his blog at http.blog.auxinews.com.

Wow what a ride the last six months has been for any business in North America but especially in the building materials distribution and retail sector. First the housing bubble popped, then all of the credit evaporated, and now the forecast looks rather hazy for 2009. A possible bright spot in 2009 will be a federal government stimulus package for infrastructure improvements that may assist with revitalizing the economy, improving the job market and in the end boost the housing sector. Business is still going to take place even if it is to a smaller scale then previous years, and those distributors and retailers that re-position themselves will have a marked advantage to capture that business.

Many businesses have weathered tough economic times before and even though this may appear deeper and longer business improvements can be made. Some of those improvements may include researching and discovering new business opportunities; investing in current assets; developing strategic partnerships with manufacturers; and providing meaningful communication to customers to build trust and re-establish confidence.

Researching and discovering new business opportunities is a daily struggle for all companies that are swamped with orders during a building boom. The tunnel vision that is developed from just satisfying current customers does not allow much thinking outside of the box. Now that things have slowed down a bit start researching some of those new avenues for sales. Obviously, one of the biggest opportunities for building material distributors and retailers is the green products industry. Taking the time to learn about the various green building standards, green building products, product certifications, government incentives, green product manufacturers, and more could be vital to re-positioning for the next boom. Established green product distributors and retailers who are quite familiar with this industry should seek to stay ahead of the game due to the industry’s growing competitiveness.

Investing in current assets can take on many forms but the most dynamic assets that any company has is its employees. Given the exponential growth of the green building and green products industries many employees may have been challenged in the last few years to keep up with all of the information. Now is the time to develop some in house trainings and possible outside educational opportunities to ensure that as new products become available, there green values and place within one or many of the green building programs can be effectively communicated to customers. Manufacturers frequently provide trainings to customers (distributors and retailers) to ensure that salespeople are knowledgeable enough to sell their products.

Developing strategic partnership with manufacturers could be another important step in re-positioning a business for the next boom. Many building material manufacturers have been seeking input on how their products fit within the various green building programs or markets in North America. Distributors and retailers are at a key place in the supply chain to provide two-way communications from the market back to the manufacturers and vice-versa. During this maturing phase of the green building/products movement this communication could not be more important to assist the manufacturers with product information such as: market acceptance, products usage, price, availability, and interest in new types of green products. Distributors and retailers have daily contact with professional and private purchasers whether it is a general contractor, architect, interior designer, government procurement officer, or Joe/Jane homeowner. The conversations, thoughts and perspectives about new products are valuable for the further development and market acceptance of any new products. These conversations, thoughts and perspectives should be captured and shared with the manufacturers so further improvements can be made to the green products and green building projects.

Continued communications with past, current or potential customers is critical to keeping them knowledgeable about new products offerings, resources, discounts, sales, and other opportunities. Whether it’s a newsletter, community event, social gathering, or email notice; these communications can provide customers with resources for them to research new green building products and techniques that are available. This service allows end-users to learn about ‘green’ products or buildings and could demonstrate how they can get involved. By being a local expert of these issues and providing some resources a company can start building trust that when a customer’s project gets started they will be looking to you for advice and materials. Building trust and re-establishing confidence are two intangible crucial services that need to be provided by any business during this economic slowdown.

So given the cyclically trends of capitalism the down turns are always more painful, but as a local community, county, state and nation we will start the re-building during 2009 and those companies that re-position themselves to be credible leaders in the green building and green products industries will have the advantage.