I spoke with Kenneth Bossong, co-director of UAEA, about the anniversary, and asked him to tell us more about his organization.

bossong-final.mp3

National Geographic Photo

The Green Options Media Network that Green Building Elements belongs to started out as a group blog called Green Options a year ago today. I was one of the green building writers on board when it started. In the course of that first year, and all the changes we’ve gone through, Green Options has become a network of related blogs, and I’ve moved to now be the lead writer for an entire blog devoted to green building and sustainable design. (It’s perhaps also appropriate that Green Building Elements got its new look just in time for this anniversary.) It’s a big enough field and there’s enough interest that we have four people (so far) writing about green building.

Writing about green building gives me a chance to explore and find out about new developments and new products. When I went to the Greenbuild 2007 Conference, I walked through the exhibition hall and saw numerous manufacturers whose products I had already written about and who I was familiar with. In some cases, I got to ask more detailed questions, or to see products in person that I had only read about on websites up until then. There were a number of instances, though, when I could tell the rep in the product booth, “I’ve written about your product.” Nothing else has given me as strong a sense of being in the forefront of something much larger.

Along with this, as a working architect, I’ve also gone through training with the US Green Building Council to become an LEED accredited professional; my professional development in the area of green building paralleling my exploration as a writer in the field. I’ve also had the opportunity to stretch myself and to get into other areas of sustainability beyond the built environment. Perhaps because of my proximity to Detroit, I’ve been able to attend some automotive-related events and learned about developments in more efficient cars, alternative fuels, and other technologies. It’s certainly a long way from where I thought I might be a year ago.

I’m grateful to our editor, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, and the rest of the GO team for giving me the opportunity to be here. Most importantly, I’m grateful to you, the readers, for your interest in the subject, the questions you’ve asked and the feedback you’ve given. If you weren’t interested in this stuff, we wouldn’t be here.

My background is in energy policy, so what I’ve learned over these past 12 months is not so much a broader understanding of energy solutions but a better understanding of what people around the world think about solutions. Almost everyone wants a new, cleaner, more efficient energy system. And while we may differ as to whether that will include more wind power, less nuclear power, or research into ocean energy, I believe the agreement and willingness for change is there. This has translated into my posts in which - for the post part - I haven’t been as intent on getting out my opinion as trying to foster a conversation about the best routes to take and the larger questions about reaching that ultimate point.

I think the Presidential election could take us down a whole new road of climate solutions — and we are ready. The question is, will we decide to work together on an array of technologies and initiatives — preparing ourselves for some give-and-take — or we let our differences get in the way of the greater good and delay progress even longer?

In the early days of our little startup, it was sometimes hard to tell exactly where we were going. We knew that Treehugger had built a successful content model by catering to the significant number of people who self-identify with that term. We wondered if it was possible to do the same, but with a brand and content focus that would help draw ordinary people towards a more conscious mindset, by meeting them where they are.

With that in mind and no funding secured, I attended the 2006 SF Green Festival as just another festival-goer, passing out user surveys to help nail down our demographics. Without a booth, I was quickly asked to stop or leave, but I vowed to be back next year, with both a booth and a greater sense of purpose.

The intervening year was one of constant development. We launched GO 1.0 in February, added Planetsave.com to our portfolio in June, launched a redesigned homepage in July (thanks to Noel of eight6.com for all of his great work), and set plans in motion to build the next major iteration of the Green Options content model through the Fall.

On of the big lessons of our first eight months was that while there are some people who want all the green info they can handle in one single site (ala Treehugger and many of the green-themed sites that pop up daily), that just isn’t the way most people get involved in sustainability. Real, busy, normal people tend to become engaged when one ‘green’ issue strikes close to home, and don’t want to be bothered by everything else until they’ve had a good experience ‘testing the waters’ with that issue.

Although our writers covered their areas of expertise brilliantly from day one, we needed to build on our content model to help them get a foot in the door of an audience broader than that which green online media has traditionally reached. Noel and our self-proclaimed bit-herder, Chris, whipped up (on an astounding deadline) the technical infrastructure to build a network of blogs, both home-grown and imported, that would allow our team to focus on making particular issues accessible to a more mainstream audience through discrete channels.

By November 2007, I was back at the Green Festival in SF, with a booth (as I had promised a year earlier), and an amazing team (which I could not have imagined a year earlier). Greenfest marked the first public display of Green Options Media, and the first three sites of the new network. At the same time, we re-engineered GreenOptions.com as community portal. To date, we’ve focused on building out the network of blogs, but we have good things planned in addition to user journals.

So, what does the future hold?

Since mid-2007, we’ve had a hardcore programmer with a finance degree building a simple web app that gives people the power to assess the feasibility of solar panels for their own home, and then turn that assessment into bids from installers. It’s in private beta, and will be launching to the public when the sun comes out this spring.

In the meantime, GO Media will be expanding on its current stable of 10 properties. We’ll be releasing our take on a green technology blog and a good ol’ local American counterpart to our popular international green news report, EcoWorldly, and we have a few other cool features in the pipe as well.

Essentially, we’ve created a playground for our writers. These are the people on the ground in the environmental movement. Our writers are composed of green professionals who are out to find practical solutions. We know that environmentalism is a complex game; I’m not the only staff member who has family members who are coal miners.

But the more you read, the more our writers dig into the topics they live and breathe anyway; we just provide the platform to increase the amount of information in the market, direct from the people who are closest to the issues that matter.

The past year has flown, and we’re excited about the ones to come. Thank you for being here, and being a part of the first chapter of the Green Options story.

To mark this occasion, we asked two of its founders, Publisher David Anderson and Senior Editor Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, to talk about the genesis, growth and plans for Green Options.

the-founders.mp3

We laughed, and then got the site up about two minutes later. Three executives and ten writers had started a journey to empower a mainstream audience with green news, guidance and community. The rest of the day went swimmingly… we even managed to get all of those first posts on the front page of Hugg (ok, not a huge accomplishment at the time, but we felt great about it!).

In the year since, we’ve had a number of moments like that first one: I’d imagine all startups have their share of stories illustrating efforts that didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned. Despite those hiccups, I’m feeling a lot of pride and gratitude as we reflect on our first year online.

It’s tempting to go into details about our development over the year, or to even a brag a bit about our accomplishments, but I’m most interested at this point in saying “thank you” to the many people who’ve contributed to Green Options, and the Green Options Media blog network.

I’m proud of the fact that many people see the GO network as a trusted source of information on making more sustainable choices. The credit for this goes largely to our writing team. I’m grateful to all of them for the time and effort they’ve put in to writing interesting and timely posts that inform, inspire and empower our user community. I’ve told them many times that “We couldn’t have done this without you”; that bears repeating many, many more times.

I’m also grateful to the users who’ve continued to come back, even as we’ve made changes. I’ve asked the writers who’ve been with us since that first day to reflect on their own development over that time, and I’m sure many of them will note that, for all of their knowledge and passion, they’ve learned much from interacting with our users. I know I’ve learned more than I’ve taught in my interaction with visitors to the Green Options site and network blogs, and I thank you all for your time and participation.

I’m thankful for the many sites and blogs that blazed the path for us. All of us found inspiration in sites like Treehugger, Grist, Worldchanging, Groovy Green, Triplepundit, Green Car Congress, Green LA Girl, It’s Getting Hot in Here, EcoGeek, Lighter Footstep, Jetson Green, Two Steps Forward, Mongabay.com, … I could (and probably should) go on and on. We’re grateful for the example these sites and blogs have set, and for the site owners/bloggers who’ve consistently demonstrated both professionalism and generosity.

Finally, I’m grateful to the other members of the Green Options team. We’ve been extremely fortunate to attract a group of seasoned professionals with a genuine commitment making the world a better place. I’m frequently overwhelmed with the knowledge and judgment these people possess, and feel very lucky to work with them.

It’s been a great year, and we’re all looking forward to the next one. We hope you’re all here to share our next anniversary with us.