Rate It Green is a user-driven directory, ratings site, and community portal for the green building industry. Our goal is to facilitate information sharing to support further industry growth, help increase industry confidence and openness, and to offer a place for community building.

ABOUT RATE IT GREEN

Rate It Green (www.rateitgreen.com) is an online community for people interested in finding and sharing the best in green building and design products and services. The company aims to facilitate an open marketplace where everyone can shop for and buy green products confidently. The Rate It Green site features a green building product and service directory and user-driven Green Ratings system as well as The Green Forum where members can share their thoughts and ask questions about a variety of green products, services, and related topics. Our hope is that Rate It Green will help newcomers and experts alike discover new products and learn the pros and cons about existing materials and services from those who have actually worked with and used them. Joining Rate It Green as a community member is free of charge. Individual Members simply fill out a registration survey as well as periodic updates to help us learn more about the green buying community.  Individual Membership as well as Basic Product and Service Listings are free of charge.  Rate It Green also publishes Green Building 101, a directory of over 900 green building industry information resources.  A top goal is to help people avoid searching for resources when they could be spending more time building green.

Rate It Green was inspired in large part by a struggle to find the information needed to make sensible and relatively quick green decisions for a project several years ago (we were looking to find this kind of a resource, not create it, at the time).  One of our founders just wanted to find advice from people who had "been there" and could share what they knew about various products and services.   From this difficult situation came a determination to help those that followed have an easier time.  Those of us working on Rate It Green are very excited that with our recent code revision (also known internally as the "new site!")  this site is now technologically strong enough to be the open vessel we have dreamed of.  We look forward to watching listings and ratings/reviews grow!  Our goal is to create the largest directory of green building products and services out there and to become THE peer review green building resource on the web.  We look forward to meeting these goals with your participation and support.  Ask questions, review products and services!

Rate It Green welcomes everyone interested in green building, and we all have a role to play in expanded this industry, whether visitors and members are new to green building or have been building green before this vocabulary existed.  Keep in mind that we can't all be experts in every topic.  The idea here is that even experts may have areas where they are still learning, and we can all benefit from information sharing.   Another point to keep in mind is that building industry confidence is very important.  All green builders ideally want more experienced-based information out there - when people's expectations are not met, they unfortunately often lose confidence in the industry and that is an outcome we wish to prevent.  The solution is to increase the amount of available quality information so that those looking to learn about a product or service can have as much advance information as possible so they know what to expect, can make better decisions for their needs, and will therefore more likely be satisfied customers.  You really can have an impact by sharing your questions and thoughts with others. 

WHAT QUESTIONS DO RATE IT GREEN MEMBERS WANT TO EXPLORE?

Rate It Green members appreciate and are excited by great design and exceptional products. We also share a concern about the health of our planet. Current building trends in energy and resource consumption are simply not sustainable. We believe that we can and should do better. Questions our members want to explore include:

• Which green solutions are superior, and which need improvement?
• Which products are manufactured more responsibly?
• Which products are the easiest and safest to install and use?
• Which products can be recycled or reclaimed efficiently?
• And which products are the most cost effective?

In sum, what do people shopping for more sustainable products need to know? And, how can we each do our part to increase the momentum of the green building movement, as well as help manufacturers and service providers know what they can do better?

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED? HOW CAN MY COMPANY GET INVOLVED?

There are many ways to get involved and to support the Rate It Green community.  While sponsorship and advertising are greatly appreciated, the fact is that many of these forms of participation are free of charge. Top ways individuals can  get involved include:

• Registering and completing our Membership Survey
• Posting ratings/testimonials about products and services you have worked with
• Asking and answering questions on our forums
• Telling friends and colleagues about Rate It Green!
• Sharing your expertise, and becoming a Rate It Green "LEAD"ing Member (moderating forums, answering member questions, etc.)
• Send us feedback and suggestions any time!

Companies can also support Rate It Green in a variety of ways:

• Registering with Rate It Green and creating a company profile
• Adding products and services in the Directory/database
• Inviting clients to provide ratings/testimonials for your company
• Encouraging other companies and colleagues to get involved
• Rate/Review other companies you have worked with 
• Become an active forum participant
• Become Individual as well as Corporate Members
• Share your company's expertise in some way (comments, feedback, side moderation, and beyond!)

Together we can make better design and purchasing decisions. We invite you to join our community and help us all buy green products and services more confidently. Thank you for your interest in Rate It Green.  Are you interested in exploring Sponsorship or Marketing opportunities with Rate It Green? Contact us at marketing@rateitgreen.com or call Allison Friedman at (617) 686-8977.