Page 245 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

REALIZING THE VALUE OF GREEN FOR KEY USERS 223

the suburbs; we can have a big city or a tight community. But what if we change the
paradigm? What if development and community planning and sustainable thinking
ceased operating as if our choices were binary opposites? What if we considered
instead the spectrum of opportunities lying in between?
Thinking in an integrated fashion: Linking the value for tenants, for financial insti-
tutions, and for the community. It’s unquestionably a challenge, particularly since
there is no easily designated “promised land” that indicates you have “arrived” at inte-
gration junction. There are specific tools we have found useful in guiding our process
toward thinking and implementing in more integrated ways, all having to do with
aspects of transparency and accountability:

■ State your position clearly;
■ Make it public;
■ Seek out independent verification; and
■ Allow for public scrutiny.

Let’s consider each element briefly.

STATE YOUR POSITION CLEARLY

I am constantly amazed by the extent to which businesses want to hedge their bets
when it comes to stating intent. Whether it is fear of lawyers and stock analysts or
an unwillingness to commit to a clear and unqualified vision, the preponderance of
businesses that fail to state a policy or course of action is staggering. Yes, most busi-
nesses have broad mission statements, but when asked for a specific set of guide-
lines by which employees and stakeholders can govern their actions, few firms will
commit to what they are willing to do. Even more rare is a statement of what a firm
is not willing to do. Drawing clear lines in the sand in terms of business practices is
a key step.
Social and environmental concerns are a huge part of our development equation.
But what does that look like? Working collaboratively over a period of about a
year, our entire company articulated a set of real estate guidelines that guide all of
our development work. The process was long and involved, with individual words
and phrases becoming fodder for intense arguments. At the end of the day, we
arrived at a statement of principles that had individual buy-in from all staff mem-
bers. Equally, we had a clear statement of what we would and would not do as a
sustainable real estate development firm. See “Melaver, Inc. Real Estate Investment
Guidelines.”

MAKE IT PUBLIC
When a firm creates governing policy, the guidelines should be made as public as
possible to ensure clear understanding by all stakeholders and to provide a constant