Page 267 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

SUSTAINABLE BROKERAGE 245

dential. In addition to product types, we have created separate categories for LEED
Information, General Business Case, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Financing, Investment,
Policy, Green Development Specs and Guidelines, and Performance Evaluations, plus
a case study database. Our library is currently expanding to include a comprehensive
product/technology database. We are developing this database, comprised of field-
tested products and technologies, with the help and expertise of our construction and
consulting departments. Information directly from Melaver, Inc. projects about such
aspects of green building as performance, operational costs, construction costs, design,
or process innovations is particularly valued.
We use this library to compile information for clients and potential clients, depend-
ing on the scope or type of their project and the specific questions they need to have
addressed. For example, a recent potential client who was interested in hiring us to list
an office building that hadn’t sold in the two years it had been on the market asked us
about green renovations that might stir some interest. In addition to sending informa-
tion on the costs and benefits of renovating office buildings this way, we also sug-
gested (since there was going to be an investment in landscaping anyway) that the
client invest in drought-tolerant and native plants and a more water-efficient irrigation
system that incorporates rainwater capture. This information made us stand out from the
other brokerage firms that were vying for the listing and gave the client a strategy to
differentiate its building. We got the listing.
The final, and perhaps most important, component of our toolbox is the sustainable
development services provided by the other departments of the Melaver, Inc. organi-
zation. We brought our consulting and development departments together with a bank
client (for whom we are providing site selection services) to discuss the possibility
of developing its flagship regional branch to LEED standards. In the site selection
process, we are, of course, cognizant of meeting client needs. For example, this client
wants to be where the most rooftops and growth, and highest incomes and traffic
counts, are. But we are also aware that, in our region, some of those sites are exurban
areas with no access to public transportation and high percentages of coastal wetlands.
Serving clients is our topmost priority, so we aim to help them find sites that meet their
business needs while mitigating these factors. And because we are interested in grow-
ing long-term relationships, we brought in the expertise from our other departments
(our living, breathing library) to discuss the bank’s flagship branch, which would be
an urban infill project.

LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE AND
SOCIAL CAPITAL

Of all the elements comprising sustainable brokerage, this was the big Ah-ha! It
should have been obvious, but it wasn’t for a long time: For every sustainable devel-
opment project Melaver, Inc. itself undertook, the brokerage division was touching
a much greater number of development projects involving a much broader segment
of the marketplace. The people in the development division are the innovators, but