Hello readers online and in-print. Fall is here and so goes the stock market. Wall Street's increasingly miserable contortions have left more than a few investors twisting in the breeze. I chuckled when I learned that the former CEO of Lehman's was allegedly cold cocked while in his gym. Surprise, surprise.

Firstly and most importantly, this builder is a big, well established homebuilder with a reputation for building beautiful luxurious houses from the inside out. Well designed and engineered, comfortable roomy homes with a solid feel to them. The builder has earned a great reputation among their customers and suppliers alike. In our opinion the solid move toward a more eco-friendly and sustainable product within all of their future communities is a significant undertaking, in and of itself. There is an appreciable shift in the mindset of this builder toward the goal of being a greener company that builds a more sustainable product. They are not merely paying lip service to this movement, they are undertaking it as well. Since we appreciate the difficulty of turning an oil tanker in a bathtub, we recognize the effort, the commitment and the results to date. As Dave Prolo is quick to point out, they are not there yet, but they are well on the way. The example being set here is worth noting also.

Well done Dave. Congratulations to you and your great team on the solid effort and for being our 2008 Green Home Builder magazine Builder of the Year.

The interest in this little magazine has been most gratifying to me personally. As this is our fourth and final issue for this tumultuous year for housing, also the end of our third year publishing GHB, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our great contributors, staff writers, editors and journalists. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the continued and growing support of our fantastic advertisers. Without these businesses we could not bring you the book. l am very pleased to announce there will be six issues of Green Home Builder in 2009, as we bring the 'little magazine that could' to you bi-monthly, beginning with the Jan/Feb NAHB show issue.

On behalf of my hard working colleagues here at Peninsula Publishing, my business partner Stuart Cochrane and my lovely wife Georgina and our family, I would like to extend the very best of holiday wishes to each of you and your families for a safe and happy Fall and holiday season and a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

Nick Slevin
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
nslevin@penpubinc.com

Today I read in the paper AIG borrowed money from a FED line of credit to repay another FED loan. This company was supposedly too big to be allowed to fail. I want some of that. I wonder who will bail out the home builders and their suppliers? Perhaps the massive interest in green home building will provide some measure of cover for those practitioners of eco friendly sustainable home building?

On a much more positive note I am please to recognize our very first Green Homebuilder magazine 'Builder of the Year, presented by The Southern California Edison Company'.

Dave Prolo, President of Southern California Division of John Laing Homes, is gracing our cover at his company's very green 'Blue Harbor' project in historic San Juan Capistrano, California. Dave and his management team at John Laing actually worked with the city to develop a new green initiative for all future developments. I appreciate there are builders who are LEED certified and can probably articulate their 'greenness' a lot more easily than John Laing Homes, however there are a couple of very solid reasons behind our selection this year.