A Message From Our Executive Director
At Build It Green (BIG) it’s our firm belief that tapping into hope and optimism enables us and our partners to create homes and communities that are affordable, healthy, and equitable and where people and nature thrive together. We believe that collaboration – between advocates and builders, decision makers and innovators, and doers and thinkers of all types – is essential to making the visions fueled by hope and optimism reality. Working together, community stakeholders, including those from the most marginalized places in California, can lead and set aspirations for where they live and building practitioners can take the practical steps to bring those aspirations to life.
We also recognize there are forces that make it hard to act upon hope and optimism and to create affordable, healthy homes and ecologically vital, socially equitable homes and places. Fear, distrust, and hyper individualism are ascendent in our politics and society right now. These forces drive people to turn inward and focus on scarcity and exclusion. For some BIG partners the ascendance of these forces is dispiriting and cause for rethinking strategies and tactics. For other partners, the impact is more existential; the ability of many Californians to live, work, thrive and contribute to the future of our communities is under threat. At BIG, we recognize this range of impacts on our partners and stand ready to be unwavering allies in the months and years ahead.
Something else we believe in at BIG is giving thanks. So in this season we want to say thank you to all of our partners across California’s housing ecosystem. Your collective commitment to stand for nature, to advance voices too often left out of decision making, and to pursue practical approaches to make visions reality will, even as countervailing forces push against us, enable our state to show what is possible when we work together. We could not have a better network of partners! .
Be safe, be strong, and be joyful. We at BIG look forward to the work we will do together.
— Jeremy Madsen , Executive Director
Alex Coba
Communication Associate
As a proud California native from Stockton, Alex brings a wealth of experience and a versatile skill set. He has a solid communication background with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Public Relations from California State University, Chico. Alex is adept at strategic communications and media relations, with experience gathering and sharing stories from his local communities that uplift the unique spirit and values of those places. He is excited to join Build It Green, where he can apply his talents to further BIG’s mission to help communities across California thrive