Remember the “If you build it, they will come” line from the 1989 Kevin Costner classic, Field of Dreams? I think the same line can be applied to Vverdant.

If I build this site, they will come….The critical mass of users is out there. The green building (GB) community of architects, engineers, building owners, financiers, etc. is huge and global. The entire industry is pushing toward green for new construction, as well as toward retrofitting our existing built environment.

Green building is the future of architecture and Vverdant seeks to be the knowledge center for this growing industry. A news aggregator, job board, social network, and event calendar, all in one. A homepage for green building professionals. I believe in the concept. Time to make it happen.

The green light bulb went off in my brain (and it was a compact fluorescent).

So I have this idea to start a company:

I’ve been thinking about it for a couple months, but the concept is just a sprout. It’s barely started to germinate in my brain. This blog is meant to change that. I plan to write about my entrepreneurial ideas here, both to catalogue my thoughts, and to provide a forum for feedback.

This is the concept:

I want to create a global Web 2.0 platform for the green building (GB) industry. A knowledge center: news, jobs, links, community, calendar. With user generated content. This will be a one stop shop for GB professionals — a resource I would use every day in my profession (I’m an architect), but which does not currently exist. I think this is a big idea because the construction industry is one of the largest in the world, and the entire thing is shifting to green. There is a large potential user group for this site.

My idea is to organize a website by location (similar in concept to Craigslist), so GB professionals can tap into their local networks. I plan to start with my current local network of Los Angeles, and spread to other cities if this is a success. I’m using Curbed as a model of a similar idea that is working for the real estate industry.

Phases:

I: Create GB network for Los Angeles. II: Spread to other cities in the U.S. and globally. III: Apply this model to other professional communities: artists, non-profits, financial executives, etc….

It’s all about scalability:

I think I’ve generated a model that could have a lot of potential. We’ll see how this blog and this idea continue to grow. Stay tuned.