Gilbert E. Martin, Jr. has more than 40 years experience in both the design and construction phases of the building industry. He has also been interested in the progress of building technology towards a sustainably future since the Carter Administration. Gilbert and Sherlyn Martin created GreenLife Construction Company in order to promote the concept of building homes that would help to bring down the cost of housing and energy while simultaneously addressing the need to reverse global climate change. 

About 25 years ago, we received a Request for Proposal (RFP) from the City of Fremont, California, to submit a proposal for a plot of land owned by the city. The RFP was asking local contractors to submit proposals that show how the property could be used in a way that would benefit the city. The idea was to increase business activity or improve the quality of  life in the area. We had recently attended a seminar on Solar Panel Technology & Installation in San Francisco, California, and another seminar on Insulated Concrete Form Construction in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At that time, a commercially available, residential-scale, geothermal energy system did not exist. Now several do. Even so, we submitted a proposal to design/build a seven-unit live/workspace building. Our plan was to use currently available building products and systems to build the units in such a way that they would produce more energy than they consumed. Because using the products and systems which were available at that time would have made the project too costly, the City of Fremont chose a competing proposal for the site. However, responding to the RFP gave us a format for the future.

Since then, GreenLife Construction Company has been engaged in the commercial tenant improvement business. But we have not lost focus on our desire to build energy productive housing. After years of conducting research, collecting data and gathering information (while simultaneously running our commercial tenant improvement business) we have now designed homes that, built according to those designs, will be both affordable and energy productive.