Guest Profile

Martha Rose

Martha Rose, known by many as the 'Queen of Green,' is a national leader in the Green Building Movement. Her interest in energy efficiency and sustainable building practices goes all the way back to the 1970's and currently is her main focus. Today Martha is striving toward building Zero-Energy spec-homes.


Martha started working in the construction industry in 1972 as a laborer and carpenter after realizing she liked working with her hands better than being in an office. Ten years of "nail-pounding" brought her to several areas of the country on both coasts. The work ranged from production framing to finish carpentry work and from residential foundations to the West Seattle Bridge. While the work was hard, the training was an invaluable foundation.


In 1982, Martha went to work for the City of Seattle as a building inspector, where she spent 4 years monitoring all of the commercial and residential projects in her district. During this time, she was taught about related construction topics such as shoreline erosion control, slide area identification and prevention, and techniques to keep water out of buildings. By being in the unique position of looking at both good and bad building styles and techniques, she was able to gain a broad working knowledge of good construction practices.


For the next 10 years, Martha worked as a free-lance project manager for other developers. The types of projects she supervised were large and small residential, commercial, and institutional. This period of time added new growth in topics related to the development process.


The energy crisis of the 1970's sparked her interest in conservation and alternative energy that became intertwined with her career in construction. The necessary learning that goes along with this topic is deep and on-going. Today, Martha is an educator herself, pushing the building industry towards zero-energy-use homes.