to do the book at all. They weren’t sure green was for real. But when the book was offered in its spring 2008 catalog, Lowe’s said they’d bring it out to their 1,800 stores. Then Home Depot spotted it and committed to bringing it out to their 2,000 stores. A dramatic statement of the popularity of green: both store chains are obviously getting requests at the “street level” for green information, and they want to rush to market with an authoritative text. The readers of that book and others flooding the market are very likely your future customers.

This trend can also be seen in almost all of our publications in some shape or form. For example, not only do we publish Green Home Builder, which is dedicated exclusively to this topic, our May issue of Builder and Developer was dedicated to sustainability. This month’s issue is devoted to all things remodeling-green and otherwise. New to this issue are columns from experts in the field with everything from a legal brief to the new EPA lead paint regulations. I hope you find these additions as informative as I did.

Jenn Sherman
Managing Editor
jsherman@penpubinc.com

The last published residential improvements and repairs data will be released within the next few weeks for the fourth quarter of 2007. The NAHB is currently working with the Bureau in the hopes of reprising the survey by 2011 depending on the budget and the economy.

One thing everyone can agree on, survey or no survey, is that green building must be mastered and marketed if a remodeler is going to stay competitive. Green building is projected to be a $50 billion market in just two more years, an unprecedented upsurge from the $7.4 billion spent on green building components in 2006.
As evidence that green is now mainstream, take the example of a book that was recently sent to me called Green Remodeling. It took the publisher, Creative Homeowner Press, a full year to decide