Starting in early 2007, following the passions of its owners, we joined with a young highly effective local non-profit, Sustainable Connections, (an excellent advocate for local, living economies) in support of their new Green Building and Smart Growth Program. In so many ways it spoke to our hearts and continues to, to this day.
Around this same time we decided to make an active effort to deepen our understanding and application of building science while making better high performance buildings. By sending two staff members, Dave Brogan and Dave Ghan, through the US Green Building Council’s rigorous LEED Accredited Professional training and credentialing process we quickly updated our best practices for “typical” buildings and identified ways to push the high performance envelope. Just a year and a half later as the great recession came crashing in, we started construction on our first LEED for Homes gold-certified project. Building beautiful homes with attention to energy efficiency, durability, and healthy indoor environments proved to make better spaces and as a bonus seemed to be recession-proof. Bellingham Bay Builders continued to grow responsibly; hiring more future owners and strengthening partnerships with the excellent local design community.