New “Certified Green Dealer™” Program to Train, Test, and Certify the Nation’s Lumber & Building

By: Architecture News

LBM Journal—the nation’s leading editorial voice for lumber and building material dealers—today announced that it has launched the Certified Green Dealer™ Program.

The Certified Green Dealer™ Program is a new Web-based “distance learning” program that will certify the nation’s lumberyards and building material dealer locations as sources of information on green building and green products through online training and printed resource material. Lumber dealers are a primary source of information about products and “best practices” for builders and remodelers, and with this Program, dealers can now brand themselves as certified sources of information about good green building techniques and green products.

Created under the auspices of LBM Journal, certification of lumber dealer locations is not affiliated with any particular national standards-setting organization, such as NAHB or USGBC’s LEED program. Instead, the certification is based entirely on demonstrated mastery by the lumber dealer personnel of “best practices” building science and green building basics. The short-subject videos (each “lunch-and-learn” length of under 25 minutes) have been produced in partnership with Building Media, and any lumberyard or building material dealer location can access the Certified Green Dealer™ Program with a browser and broadband connectivity to the Internet.

A lumberyard or building material dealer location can become a Certified Green Dealer™ if 75% of its sales personnel view a series of Web-based training videos (and pass eight individual quizzes) about building basics, green building, and green building products.

How Dealer Locations Participate in the Program

Without regard to size, location, or sales volume, any lumberyard or building material dealer location can participate in the Program. The Program is entirely Web-based and can be accessed by visiting www.CertifedGreenDealer.com. At the Program’s Website, interested parties can view a brief, free video that explains the Program, with no commitment. A sample educational module from the Program is also available for viewing with no obligation.

The Program is remarkably affordable at just $899 per dealer location for the first year, and $599 per location for any year after that. (The fee is reduced for volume purchases of more than 50 dealer locations.) That fee entitles the dealer location to unlimited viewing of the training videos for designated members of its sales force, as well as a complement of other educational printed and online information about green building and green products. An unlimited number of additional lumber dealer personnel can access the video archive for a modest additional per-person fee.

Exploding Market Growth

Green building is by far the fastest-growing building trend in decades, and it has been a white-hot center of building activity even as other housing sectors cool down. A recent McGraw Hill survey found that green building will be a $40 to $50 billion market by 2010.

“A $50 billion green building market within three years represents a huge jump in spending on green building components from the $7.4 billion expended in 2006,” said LBM Journal’s Editor and Publisher Rick Schumacher. “With this Program, dealers can educate their personnel and brand themselves as authorities on green building practices, as they position themselves to take advantage of this emerging market by offering high-margin premium green products.