Dear Readers

It’s hard to believe that seven years have passed since the Southface Energy and Environmental Resource Center opened its doors to the world during Atlanta’s Olympic celebrations. Our state-of-the-art classroom allowed us to make great strides in our ability to educate homeowners, architects, builders, developers, policy makers and others on saving energy and water while protecting the environment.

Education is at the heart of everything we do at Southface. From our homebuilding school to Greenprints, from EarthCraft House training to residential and commercial technical services, our goal is to build capacity in consumers and professionals to transform the market for sustainable building in our region.

I like to think the fact that we are celebrating our 25th anniversary means we are experiencing success in this market transformation. Not to mention the fact that more than 1,000 homes have been certified EarthCraft Houses and Atlanta ranks fourth in the nation for number of buildings registered with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Our educational efforts have led to action by consumers and the design and construction industries, resulting in demand for green building in our region.

In this issue of the Southface Journal, we are going “back to school.” We have a great story to tell regarding school construction in Georgia. Policy makers, school administrators and environmentalists are seeing their combined vision become reality in several current projects.

We are also making great progress on the new Southface Eco Office, which will stand adjacent to our current Resource Center and residential demonstration center. We look forward to bringing you updates and helping you get involved in the next phase of our organization’s growth.

Dennis Creech
Executive Director