Blueprint
March 2006
Promote Your Excellent Building Practices with “Green”
By Devan Kaufman
I have recently become quite involved with the Center on Sustainable Communities (COSC). This is a new organization, located in Des Moines, but serving all of Iowa. The organization’s function is to promote sustainable building in Iowa, or “green” building. I have taken a little ribbing around the office for hanging out with the liberal “tree huggers”. I have absolutely no desire to turn this into a political statement or argument, but the thought does demonstrate a stereotype typically associated with “green” building. While the stereotype points to the perception that green building is a notion that environmentalists who, “want to save the planet”, aspire to, and promote. This is not at all the reason that I became interested in “green”. Rather, my standard, “sustainable” building philosophy and practices, pointed me directly at “green”. I used the term “sustainable” in the previous sentence purposely. I believe that using this term rather than “green” is a better choice of words, true it is just a play on words, but the term “sustainable” does not carry the stereotype and is a more accurate description of the way that I, and most of you, prefer to remodel and build.
I think we all want to provide our clients with the best product that we possibly can in our market. This gives us satisfaction for a job well done as well as less potential for problems with clients that are disappointed that the product they received did not measure up to their expectations, especially over time. We have all chosen (or found) a market that fits our philosophy on building. Whatever market you are in you should give sustainable building a second look. There truly is a place for everyone and COSC is a very diverse group of remodelers, builders, designers, architects, and others. For that reason, COSC is working very hard to build benefit into the organization for a wide range of professionals. Meeting with this diverse group and helping develop plans for the organization, has opened my eyes to the fact that, while “green” is not something that everyone in the building industry aspires to, “sustainable” is an aspiration that I think we all can agree on.
Our company is very committed to providing our clients with above standard product, but even more so, we are committed to giving our clients the opportunity to compare and select which sustainable aspects they feel are of the most value to them. We sell a completely custom product. Some of the other companies in the group are more concentrated at providing a certain product at a certain price, which must be very competitive. At first glance, this is a conflict of views and philosophy, but as I stated before, we both are attempting to provide as much as we can at a price that is acceptable to the client. The only difference is the breaking point at which our respective clients decide that the return, whether it be monetary or in quality of living, is not worth the difference in cost. If sustainable building wasn’t more expensive, we all would be doing it and promoting it. The fact is that many sustainable building practices and products do pay back over time, but showing that to prospective clients in black and white, is very difficult. The more we all buy into it, the more information and marketing material will be available.
Whether your company is in a market that will bear a little bit of sustainable building or one that demands a lot of sustainable building, we all benefit. If your company remodels or builds very standard products at very competitive prices, promoting and implementing sustainable building on a small scale can give you a marketing edge that sets you apart from your competition, without adding dramatically to your retail price. If you can show that this additional cost is paid back over time, my guess is that it is a slam dunk! You have the sale. If your company is in a market that demands sustainable building, you know that though your clients have requested sustainable building, they are constantly searching for what the payback is going to be for investing the extra money. They are usually prepared to pay a certain amount more than standard for some things because they think that product or building practice will improve their quality of life, but if you can show them that some of the additional upfront costs will pay them back over time, you have essentially knocked money off your retail price. Another slam dunk!
So, of course the challenge is to make sure that the rating system is tiered so that all markets can promote some sort of sustainable building. This has been the rewarding part of working with COSC. The diverse group is at work developing a rating system that everybody can aspire to at one level or another. This has opened my eyes to the fact that sustainable building can be promoted and implemented in all parts of the industry and will benefit us all. We are all able to build and market better products to the consumer. Which I believe is a goal we already share.
I have obviously left a great deal out of the whole “sustainable building” equation, such as limiting waste, recycling, emissions, etc. Honestly, these are sustainable building practices that I have less interest in. I don’t see a huge market for them at the moment. They don’t have a substantial quality of life or monetary payback. They luckily are often times a by-product of the other more marketable sustainable building practices, which I am very excited about.
It may sound like I am selling COSC memberships here. I am not. My involvement in the organization has motivated me to devote this article to the subject and if you would like more information about COSC visit http://www.icosc.com, but there are many other ways to get information on sustainable building. The National Home Builders Association also has information at http://www.nahb.org/page.aspx/category/sectionID=222.
Remember that we need your help on our Back to Basics project at Home Ministries. Contact Corrie: 270-8500 or Marc Black: 981-9352 x5# to volunteer or get more information.
Sign up for your CGR, CGA classes with Corrie: 270-8500.
Have a great month!
Devan Kaufman
Chairperson, Remodelor’s Council of Greater Des Moines |
