Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I am a green building enthusiast - a newbie though. I'm fascinated at the new technology being used in homes today. There are so many functional ways to save money, energy, and everything else, its hard not to want to get involved somehow. For my first question... How does everyone go about finding information on the building products they eventually use? There do not seem to be official codes yet since everything is changing so rapidly. How do you stay up to date with new products? Thanks to everyone in advance, and thanks to everyone building green.

Ok, so I have NEVER done this in the past, but.................effcientree, just a sincere suggestion, if you have a specific project in mind, give "us" some information, eg: type of project, location, time frame, and as much detail as possible
describing any special requirements, desires, etc If its just a general education that you're looking for, there's at least a years worth of "curriculum" on the various forums on this website. You can use virtually any search criteria that interests you, and it WILL be covered, from virtually every conceivable angle, guaranteed!

In any event, welcome aboard, whatever your motive!

I did make a newbie mistake and post before searching through out the site. I am basically just "browsing" and getting familiar with everything. This site indeed has an enormous amount of information, will take me a good while to go through it, but that is what i wanted. I will be intouch, thank you

hey, effcientree, no harm, no foul, I know of at least one poster who introduced himself as " newbie____" about a year and a half ago, and I think that he's living in his new "green" home now, possibly influenced by his interaction on this website.

Happy "green" surfing!

Welocome aboard. A book thats been helpful to me is "GREEN BUILDING PRODUCTS. The green spec guide to residential building materials. Alex wilson and mark piepkorn. Its loaded with goodies although due to size limit of books some items i learned of on this site are omitted. A good starting point for materials. michael