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As the new year is now underway, I wanted to make a brief announcement and shameless plug for a local nonprofit so important to our home and housing industry. It is a great honor to steward the efforts of the Santa Fe Area Home Builder’s Association’s exceptional board of directors for 2015. The good work of SFAHBA encompasses such a diverse and far-reaching effect on our local community. SFAHBA is recognized as one of the most progressive and effective local homebuilding associations in the country.

We are proud to be a trusted voice in Santa Fe, helping to shape the agenda and set the goals of forward-thinking policies at the city, county and state levels. Our commitment to sustainable development has resulted in the strengthening and refinement of the City of Santa Fe’s green-building codes, and the development of a newwater conservation rating tool, theWater Efficiency Rating System (WERS), soon to be implemented.

Our weekly radio show hosted by executive officer Kim Shanahan airs every Monday at noon on KVSF 101.5 FM. Stay tuned for important insights into key issues facing our community and the construction industry. We are also very excited about the re-launch of our monthly newsletter, Building Times, visible at www.sfahba.com. In our increasing efforts to reach out to the Spanish-speaking portion of our community, we have begun a Spanish language section of our newsletter. Estad atentos para eventos de lengua españolas más en 2015.

This year we continue to support state legislation to re-enact the Sustainable Building Tax Credit and increase the development of local trades-based education in our schools. Our monthly luncheons, open to the public, cover a wide range of topics, including best practices in building and water conservation, and often we are able to host local and national politicians for open-forum discussions. In fact we are proud to be the go-to experts for many of our political figures seeking insight into legislative issues pertaining to housing, water conservation, and building codes.

It is a great honor and responsibility to be elected president of this fine local organization and I look forward to working with all Santa Feans interested in home-building issues this year.

Mark Giorgetti and Leslie Giorgetti are both principals at Palo Santo Designs, a Santa Fe design-build contractor specializing in high-performance homes. Mark serves as president of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders’ Association, and Leslie is an associate broker with Santa Fe Properties. Contact Mark at 505-670-4236, mark@palosantodesigns.com and Leslie at 505-670-7578, leslie.giorgetti@sfprops.com, and visit www.palosantodesigns.com.