Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Can't believe its the end of the year already! This past year flew bye. We have been blessed this last year by receiving several national awards and by being published is several national & local magazines and had a lot of coverage through the internet. Since our last update we found out that I was elected to the Board of Directory at the Alliance for Environmental Sustainability (AES). I consider this a great honor and look forward to working with the rest of the Board members their, the AES has mentored myself and Image Design, LLC over the last 4 years and we would not be where we are today without them.

Our projected LEED for Home "Platinum" Glenn Retreat project is now under construction and the homeowners are writing a web-log about it. You can follow the progress of this project by clicking on the project's name above. Our projected LEED for Homes "Platinum" Turtles Hope project should be nearing completion some after the first of the year. We have several interesting project in design one of them is a sustainable remodel to a 1890's old farm house (see the picture above) built in in Dowling, Michigan the homeowners call the project Uncle Shane's. You can also follow the progress of this project by clicking on its project name too. This project will ultimatly be turning into a off the Grid Orgainic Farm. We are working on commercial LEED certified project called Northwoods by Nature that will be a non-profit Training Center for Green Building and Wind Tower Safety in LeRoy, Michigan. This project is exciting to me because it will give us a place up north to train and speak about Green Building and the LEED for Homes program to Builders, Sub-contractors, Building officials, Realtors and Homeowners in Northern Michigan. Some of the other project's we have in design will be built-in Howard City, Traverse City, Benzonia, Beulah, Dexter, Glenn, Ionia, Friutport, Newaygo, LeRoy, West Branch and Grand Rapids.

We are also anxiously awaiting final LEED for Homes certification on two of our projects the national award winning Vineyard Project which is projected to be "Platinum" and th Granite Hill which is projected to be "Gold". I am also in the process of working on my LEED AP + Homes Professional Credentials this is a two part process, first I will go for my LEED Green Associate certification then take a exam then if I pass it, I go take the LEED AP + Homes exam. This certification is worth one point on any of my projects that are going for LEED certification. So its important to have these Professional Credentials and it will also sets me apart from my competition. Also I will need it for a new venture I will be starting in 2010 (More about that next year)

2009 was a challenging, yet transformative year. Looking forward to the opportunities opening in 2010. Hope you all have a Happy New Year!