Page 263 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

SUSTAINABLE BROKERAGE 241

expertise while simultaneously learning about a new product from the construction
team, or a new source of green power from our in-house sustainability consultants, or
a new process for stakeholder involvement from the development group. We try to
find all possible opportunities for taking advantage of the depth and breadth of sus-
tainable development knowledge held in our company.
Additionally, gaining on-the-ground exposure to LEED projects throughout the
development process gives us a practical knowledge of the challenges, strategies, and
innovations involved in green development and building. Inter-departmental com-
munication rounds out our education and makes us better at what we do. As a sus-
tainable brokerage group, we cannot only explain to a potential client what is entailed
in developing a green project, we know the process firsthand and have our own per-
formance metrics to provide as examples of what building strategies make sense (and
which do not).

DESIGNATING AN INTERNAL CHAMPION
For a long time—way too long, as it turned out—we expected our brokers to stay
informed about developments in green development (including building case
studies as well as advances in materials and technologies), participate in our com-
pany’s line-up of speakers, educate others in the community generally, and in the
real estate profession specifically, about green practices, and advocate for sustain-
able legislation on top of their regular responsibilities representing clients. Forget it.
Brokers—almost without exception—have an independent agency relationship with
their parent company, which means that time devoted to deep, ongoing research
into green practices, outreach, and advocacy is time taken away from earning a liv-
ing. Maybe someday the market will change and, with it, the capacity of brokers to
devote financially productive time to these efforts. But that’s not the case at the pres-
ent time.
Every brokerage division or company is organized differently, and so we hesitate to
draw a line in the sand and say that every such business should have a full-time,
salaried champion on staff to choreograph sustainable brokerage. There may indeed
be companies out there where a head broker or agent is able to play this role, perhaps
in addition to his or her ongoing daily brokerage responsibilities (which could easily
be the case in a values-centric organization where values might trump financial pro-
ductivity). Those situations notwithstanding, we would strongly recommend having
someone within a brokerage division or company whose primary responsibility is to
integrate the individual, professional skills of the brokerage team with the sustainable
goals of the entire group.
The key responsibilities of a sustainability associate (or sustainability champion)
are likely to include:

■ Research. Serve as the primary source for collecting information on green business
case studies, materials, technologies, regulations, and policies;