The Spec Shaman

The Spec Shaman

The building industry's top specification experts, LEED gurus, and design hotshots offer their best advice, research, and insights to help building product manufacturers increase product specifications. Building product specification is what keeps us up at night. Our team of experts are dedicated to helping building product manufacturers implement meaningful action to create positive outcomes. The goal of this blog is to create insightful, relevant content that building product manufacturers can utilize in their daily lives. Whether you are the company Owner, President, Marketing Manager, Sales Leader, Product Rep, or office intern we hope to provide you with strategies to improve product specification results and grow key parts of your business significantly.

On: Dec 6, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
4 Trends That Will Affect Specification in 2019
"Trend" isn’t necessarily a word a manufacturer wants to have used to describe their product, when used in reference to short-lived fads. But Merriam-Webster defines the word at least four different ways in its noun form: a prevailing tendency or inclination; a general movement; a current style or preference; or a line of development. None of these mean short-lived or like a fad.
On: Nov 30, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
Climate Change, Part 3: It’s All About the Straws, Isn’t It?
I used to love reading dystopian fiction, particularly when the fall of humanity could be attributed mostly to climate change or a weather catastrophe. I think this was because of all the possibilities for a fallen world, this one was the least realistic for me. The natural world existed long before we ever did, before I ever did, and it was much bigger than us. We could never ruin it, or be ruined by it, in my mind. It was unconquerable.
On: Nov 21, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
5 Things That Can Increase Building Product Specifications
Getting specified is not always easy and getting specified during the holidays or end of the year deadlines is even more of a challenge. The challenge is the same for everyone--a product manufacturer builds a relationship with a specifier, or bids to be part of a project, and hopes to get picked. But in the end, there is only one victor. If you’re not the one picked, how does that happen if you did all the same things that the other person did? The construction industry is a complex one.
On: Nov 16, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
Climate Change, Part 2: It’s All About the Straws, Isn’t It?
Wouldn’t it be great if saving the world was as easy as ditching straws or riding our bikes to work? Sustainable living is definitely affected by our personal best practices, but it’s obviously a global problem in a symbiotic relationship between the world as a whole and humans on a personal level. At this point, however, big changes need to happen. And probably not just big changes, but innovative, outside the box big changes.
On: Nov 1, 2018 By: Stacie Townsend
Pay Attention: 3 Things That Encourage Specification
The AEC industry is constantly changing, and it can be hard to keep up. The challenge as a manufacturer is knowing how to get your product specified regardless of these changes. The obvious starting point is having a great product. Even the best sales rep can’t get a product specified if the competition blows it out of the water. Additionally, networking is vital, both face to face and online.

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GreenCE offers AIA HSW online continuing education, LEED online courses, ADA online courses, and LEED Exam Prep. GreenCE helps design professionals obtain their AIA HSW hours, LEED-specific hours, barrier-free hours, and IDCEC CE hours. The website delivers LEED Exam Prep for the LEED Green Associate exam, LEED BD+C exam, and LEED O+M exam. The online LEED certification courses educate architects, engineers, interior designers, contractors, and students.

GreenCE is a USGBC Education Partner that offers the only free LEED exam prep in the country. The LEED certification course includes a free LEED exam study guide, free LEED practice questions, and LEED certification tips and strategies. In addition, GreenCE offers free courses for LEED APs to obtain their LEED BD+C hours, LEED ID+C hours, and LEED O+M hours. Most GBCI courses are free and in video format.

GreenCE is an AIA Education Provider and offers free AIA online courses. The free AIA courses are sponsored by building product manufacturers. In addition, the platform offers barrier-free ADA courses for Texas and California architects. Texas barrier-free online courses and California Accessibility courses meet state requirements. TX ADA courses and CA ADA courses are created by the top ADA experts in the country.

Building product manufacturers can get specified by using GreenCE services. GreenCE develops AIA and LEED courses for product manufacturers to educate architects. The online architect courses help build brand awareness about building products. In addition, GreenCE hosts manufacturer webinars for 200-300 architects at a time. The AIA webinars and LEED webinars are free for architects who can learn about various products.

Finally, GreenCE helps manufacturers develop Health Product Declarations (HPDs), LEED v4 product documentation, mindful MATERIALS documentation, Google Portico documentation, and Declare Labels. We value our relationships with design professionals and building product manufacturers. They are crucial to our success.