The Green X-Ray HouSe, a community affair '/

fN PAST columns, we talked abour Ithe importance of community involvement, networking with green building leaders, and making sure the local municipal green building folks know who you are. This strategy costs virtually nothing and can only lead to good things-sometimes even spectacular things.

Nothing exemplifies this better than Beronio Lumber's involvement in an exciting little project that put an otherwise unremarkable little town in Northern California on the green building map.

South San Francisco is an industrial suburb of San Francisco, whose fortunes waned with the outflow of manufacturing and airline jobs over the years. Recently, city leaders had a vision to promote green building, community development, and the city's attractiveness to potential new residents, and it all came together around a single project. The city owns several rental properties and decided to transform one of them, a modest three-bedroom bungalow, into a showcase called the Green X-Ray House (see their website at www.greenxrayhouse.com.)

While the focal point of the project is the house, the real story is about the community that came together to make it happen. The action started this past summer, when South San Francisco's Economic & Community Development Department started the Sustainability Center, a multi-use facility housing several green businesses. The city then convinced the Green Building Exchange-which provides a central location for green building education for builders, architects and homeowners-to ioin the new center.

Beronio Lumber has a permanent display at the exchange, which it installed when it started building relationships with green building-related organizations a couple of years ago. When conversations began about what to do with the vacant property, the city consulted with the Green Buildine Exchange-which immediatel! brought Beronio Lumber into the process. Thus, the Green X-Ray House was born.

The concept was simple: remodel the house with lots of green features to demonstrate how easy a modest green makeover could be. Beronio Lumber provided decking materials, FSC-certified flooring, moulding, and window and door casings, as well as the windows and doors. Meanwhile, the folks at Green Building Exchange talked up

By Jay Tompt

the project with other local firms-it seemed everyone wanted to be involved. The modest green makeover quickly became a vibrant community project. More than 19 local firms participated, nearly all directly involved in the green building industry.

Local builder W.L. Taylor Construction managed the project. Local plastering company Get Plastered! (yes, that's their name!) applied American Clay, an interior plaster product. The most surprising partner was Pepsico/Frito-Lay, whose business has nothing to do with green building. But as a local member of the community, the company donated cash and more than 25 volunteers to work on the house over a weekend.

The Green X-Ray House is now a symbol for the neighborhood, not just as another green show house, but of what can happen when a community comes together to try to make a difference. Beronio Lumber created enormous community goodwill, as did other participants. Neighbors of the Green X-Ray House are thrilled because their property values went up a tick and their community got some positive recognition. Suddenly, South San Francisco is a green leader, with cities from around the country sending representatives to learn how this successful collaboration can be replicated in their communities.

- Jay Tompt is vice president of green product development at Plan-lt Hardware, San Francisco, Ca., which distributes green products for hardware and home improvement stores throughout California, and a leading experr in sustainable business and supply chain issues. He can be reached at info@plan-ithardware.com or (415) 359-9914.

BMHC Moves Hq. To ldaho

Building Materials Holding Corp. relocated Jan. 1 from San Francisco, Ca., to Boise, Id.home base of its BMC West subsidiary.

The company called the move a reaction to the "severe cyclical downturn in the homebuilding industry."

The San Francisco headquarters building was closed, and BMHC will maintain only a small office in the Bay Area.

Alternative Deck Firms Merge

Fiber Composites and Sensibuilt Building Solutions have reached a definitive merger agreement to join their assets and brands.

"The addition of Sensibuilt newgeneration PVC decking represents a major opportunity to provide the best, most comprehensive line of decking, railing and fencing products in the business," said c.e.o. Doug Mancosh.

Sensibuilt, launched in 2007, produces PVC decking and siding, which will join Fiber Composites' Fiberon brands of composite decking and railing and Enclave composite fencing.

Bill Collins, chairman of Sensibuilt Building Solutions, will remain with the post-merger company as vice chairman. "The combination of Sensibuilt's unique PVC technology and product pipeline, together with Fiber Composites' existing brands and organizational resources, creates a powerful new player in the marketplace," he said.

Pegasus Capital Advisors, which held a majority interest in Sensibuilt, will invest in Fiber Composites and retain a minority position in the merged companies.

Keith Brown Closes Final Yards

Eighty-year-old pro dealer Keith Brown Building Materials, Salem, Or., has closed and will liquidate its final locations.

Among its last yards, Salem, Corvallis, Molalla and Portland, Or., and Oakdale. Ca., were closed Dec. 2, and Visalia, Ca., was shuttered in mid-November. They planned to reopen shortly thereafter, long enough to sell off remaining inventory.

The chain began 2008 with 14 yards spread across Oregon and fT IS now increasingly difficult to ldecide what constitutes a family. How do we decide who's to be involved in a family meeting process and who can't be?

California, but had as many as 25 locations and 400 employees in 2000 after acquiring 2l yards from Copeland Lumber.

Chairman Brad Pence attributed the closure to the housing collapse and subsequent credit crunch, which prevented an investor from bailing out the company. Pence did not expect to file bankruptcy.

Pence's wife's grandfather was Keith Brown, who launched the family-owned business in Salem in 1928.

DOMESTIC SALES: Jerry Long, Michael Parrella, Janet Pimentel, Pete Ulloa, George Parden, Vince Galloway, Steve Batick, Chris Hexburg.

INTERNATIONAL SALES: Nestor Pimentel.

That used to be an easier question to answer. Family members have expanded to include an array of individuals who could have hardly been predicted a few decades ago. Recently, we consulted with a c.e.o./patriarch who openly talked about and accepted his daughter's lesbian relationship. As an established couple, his daughterthe company's chief financial officer-and her significant other had been living together for l0 years, and both were always present and comfortable at all family gatherings.

Our client had scheduled an important family meeting a month away to discuss his succession olan and had called us in to help mike sure that things ran smoothly. As we went over the list of attendees, we expressed concern when we realized that his daughter's partner hadn't been invited. "My God, I didn't even think about it!" he replied, embarrassed.

We realized that on one level, despite his good grace and benevolent intentions, he still hadn't really accepted his daughter's partner as a real family member. Fortunately, he realized his omission in time to avert a potential disaster.

Though underway for decades, fundamental changes in American families still challenge our long-held values and half-conscious assumptions. It used to be that all we had to worry about were in-laws. From 1970 to 2000, married families with children dropped from 4OVa of American households to 247o. Unmarried couples account for 4.SVo of all households, an increase of almost 75Vo in the past decade. At some point. over one-third of American children can expect to live in a single-parent household. These facts suggest that any modern American family business is likely to include live-in partners (of the same or opposite sex), divorced or separated spouses, stepparents, adopted children or stepchildren.

We can decry, fret over, or embrace these changes. But, at minimum, family businesses must acknowledge that they exist, so that members can make conscious decisions and anticipate their consequences, What, for example, is to be done with divorced spouses? After the divorce is settled (something often easier said than done), will the ex-spouse's extent of participation hinge upon the amicability of the divorce? What if the original family member is the one who caused the divorce by doing something horrible? What's to be done for the children?

Although there are no hard and fast rules for making these difficult decisions, a wide array of options exists. During emotionally wrenching times, think of options as existing along a continuum. A vast middle ground lies between doing nothing and doing everything possible for a family member who is legally moving away from the center; it is the area between the poles where the wisest solutions usually lie. When our hearts yank us toward extremes, invite our heads into the negotiations. For example, a family may decide to exclude ex-spouses from ownership in the business but still include them as employees.

Blended families can also present dilemmas. If a family member marries someone with children and legally adopts those children, are the children to be included in the family with the same rights and privileges as other members? Some families base this on the children's ages at the time of marriage. But occasionally, notions of fairness and inclusion conflict with some family members' inherent belief that blood is thicker than legal status.

In such situations. once again. remember to bring heads as well as hearts to the negotiating table. Values clarification may also help. Values are more rigid when they're unconscious; often, after people are allowed to clearly express their own values, they are willing to modify them. Saying, "I have trouble accepting that children who don't share our genes and history should have the same rights as my own children," puts the issue squarely on the table. Saying, "Why should your new husband bring his kids into our family and expect us to take care of them?" puts the onus on the new husband and intensifies the kind ofdefensiveness that can erupt into a war.

Finally, are long-term, live-in partners part of the family? If so, for how long must they live together before they're accepted? Here, again, so many variables exist that the answer can only come from the family's willingness to discuss the issue without insult or recrimination. A good starting point may be to discuss what each person really means by family. Some may purposely tailor their definitions to include or exclude the person whose presence has triggered the discussion. To avoid that, have everyone write down their definition. Then collect the papers and redistribute them so that each person ends up with with someone else's definition. One by one, each person reads aloud the definition in their hand and a discussion follows. This exercise will not necessarily lead to a consensus definition of family, although that would be the ideal, but it will generate an honest, vigorous discussion that enables everyone to come closer to deciding what constitutes a family. Doing this exercise orients the family toward working together. It saves them from fighting to hold on to values that actually stand in the way of the ultimate goal: family unity.

A parent's fantasy is that the family that they have always envisioned will work together and stay together. It doesn't always work out that way. But if parents can approach the new realities with understanding, if they are willing to accept a challenge and to work at it, then the most important parts of their dream-a supportive family and a successful family business-can still come true.

- Bernard Kliska is an associate of the Family Business Consulting Group, Marietta, Ga.; (800) 551-0633. He can be reached at kliska@ efomilybusiness.com.

Reprinted with permission from The Family Business Advisor, a copyrighted publication of Family Enterprise Publishers. No portion of this article may be reproduced without permission of Family Enterprise Publishers.

Sacto Wholesaler Gloses

Longtime wholesaler GabbertEdwards Lumber Sales, Sacramento, Ca., closed Dec. 5.

President Jim Edwards, 57, and v.p' Lloyd Gabbert, JO, are contemplating retirement, among other options. The partners formed Gabbert-Edwards in 1982, as the successor to several Gabbert-led businesses that date back to the 1940s.

Edwards attributed the closure to difficult market conditions, including the demise of his largest customer, Sacramento dealer Dolan's Lumber.

BMC Backs Out Of Reload

BMC West is closing its LBM distribution facility and Railway Express reload center in Mira Loma, Ca., effective Jan. 10, 2009.

Tri-Rail Logisitics, which is owned by the same parties that sold Railway Express to BMC West a Year ago, has agreed to take over the lease for the Mira Loma facility.

BMC West senior v.P. WaYne Withers attributed the move "to current market conditions combined with the low projected level of new housing starts for 2009." The chain has consolidated its own operations into its railserved facility in Indio, Ca.

California Loses Commission

The California Forest Products Commission has disbanded after l8 years, effective December 31.

Forest products Producers have decided to discontinue PaYing an assessment on wood harvested in the state, which funds the commission. Previously, manufacturers paid 30p per 1,000 bd. ft., but when harvest volumes declined, increased their payment to the maximum $l per 1900 bd. ft. As logging levels continued to shrink, revenues were insufficient to keep the commission viable.

Two staffers, education director Shaney Emerson and administrative assistant Pam Sawyer, will stay on to run sister organiztion The Forest Foundation, which will take over some of CFPC's K-12 education Programs.

Other assets and intellectual property have been transferred to the California Forestry Association. With the loss of the commission, the lobbying organization is expanding its communications efforts. It has hired CFPC marketing director Bob Mion as communications director. Mion will also continue editing California Forests magazine and handling marketing for the California Redwood Association.

CFPC president Donn Zea is now president and c.e.o. of the Northern California Water Association. CFPC v.p. of communications Cheryl Rubin has formed her own public relations firm, Rubin & Associates.

Hardie ldles Siding Plants

James Hardie Industries is temporarily mothballing its fiber cement siding plants in Fontana, Ca, and

Summerville, S.C.

Hardie c.e.o. Louis Gries attributed the need for less capacity to "the continuing decline in the U.S. housing market. Cunent and projected market demand cannot support our current plant network."

The plants ceased production at the end of November, but continued shipping product into January. They will reopen "when market demand returns to acceptable levels."