Green Building Initiative

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The Green Building Initiative (GBI) is an American non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon that is devoted to encouraging the building industry and its customers towards the adoption of building practices that result in energy efficient, healthier and environmentally sustainable buildings. The GBI believes that by promoting credible, practical and affordable approaches in commercial and residential construction, it can help move the rationale for building green from a "feel good" approach, to a performance-based approach.

GBI owns the U.S. rights to and promotes the Green Globes environmental assessment, education and building rating system. According to a comparative study [1] by the University of Minnesota, from a process perspective, Green Globes’ has a simpler methodology, employing a user-friendly interactive guide for assessing and integrating green design principles for buildings.

In 2006, the GBI submitted its Green Globes tool to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for consideration to become an ANSI standard. The process, which involves the review by an independent panel of more than 100 representatives of all of the various interest groups engaged in green building, is proceeding and the GBI says that they anticipate that Green Globes will become an ANSI standard in 2008.

The GBI is a sponsor of EcoBuild, a biannual conference of companies and practitioners interested in accelerating the adoption of Green Building Practices.

GBI works with local chapters of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to develop green building programs in their communities, and is engaged in educating consumers on the reasons that they should consider green building techniques.