Page 4 - November 2015 Green Builder Magazine

EDITOR’S NOTE By Matt Power, Editor-in-Chief

The Inside Scoop

2

What Will You Teach Your Home?

Soon, all of the machines in your proximity may be talking to each

other. Which lifestyle choices do you want them to reinforce?
EVERY YEAR, WE OFFER THE
Homeowner’s Handbook as The Internet of Things is the phrase
a way to “spread the gospel used to describe how machines are now
of green” to homeowners being built to communicate directly with
and non-professionals. Our other machines, skipping the middle—
man—altogether. It may sound silly, but at

professional readers pass it some point in the near future, your coffee

on—a helpful tool for explaining the maker will know when to turn on and off,

terminology of high-performance homes without you programming it. Your shower

to non-experts. And those non-experts— temperature will adjust to just the temp

readers like you—get a crash course in you like on Thursday afternoons.

what it means to live green. The IoT has some critics, and for good

This year, there’s a“disruptive”technology reason. It could be misused. But let’s

www.greenbuildermedia.com 11.2015 at work in the building industry. Not disruptive in a bad way. assume, for now, that more ethical heads will prevail. And

Disruptive in a way that means “this will change everything.” that because your machines will be learning from you, they

will learn what it means to become good

stewards of resources. They’ll save energy,

switch off lights in empty rooms, let the

Green Future. Green Builder just cat out, warn you when pipes are leaking
won a major national award for and call a doctor if you have a heart attack.
the Celestia Project, a hopeful But make no mistake, like the popular
vision of abundant living in the Nest thermostat, they’ll be looking to your
year 2100, thanks in part to behavior for the right thing to do.
digital technology.

We think you will lead them

courageously, in part because we feel the

tide is turning toward greater awareness

of our environment and our role on the

planet. For example, we just got word

that our year-long Celestia Project (www.

greenbuildermedia.com/celestiaproject)

won first place in the coveted Folio

journalism awards this year. The big deal

for us isn’t the award; it’s the subject matter.

We forecasted an abundant, sustainable

and bountiful future (made possible by

the combination of good intention and

“disruptive” technology), and the judges

saw something beautiful in this idea.

Maybe it’s a sign of better things to

come for all of us. Imagine your fine-tuned

home, served by invisible technology, yet

still touching the heartbeat of life. It’s a

dream we can all get behind. —MP