Page 274 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

252 CHAPTER 8

widely held belief that, whereas today green buildings are a differentiator, tomorrow
they will be the new standard. Everyone will be building to LEED standards. We hope
so. If you take serious stock of the various reports emanating from the Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate Change, you quickly begin to realize that if we all don’t get
on board quickly with a new way of doing business, there will be a lot less business
for all of us to do.
A sustainable brokerage business such as ours is then faced with an interesting
challenge: Do we try to be proprietary about what we know (whatever that is) in the
hope of extending the time period of our competitive advantage and thus enhanc-
ing our revenue stream? Or do we share what we know with anyone who will lis-
ten, in the hope that this green movement will ratchet up all the more quickly but
with the recognition that our own time frame of superior profitability will be cut
short?
It’s an interesting quandary, but at the end of the day it’s a false choice. From a
purely pragmatic point of view, the movement toward sustainability is happening so
quickly that our own particular response to it can only be open sharing of what we
know. If we were to be proprietary about what we know and do (we’re not sure what
that is, but no matter), we don’t think it would slow down this green movement one
iota. But being active, positive, and collaborative participants in this movement does
help move the ball forward. We are doing what we can in our own backyard, which
leads us to the more idealistic point of view.

Y Years 0 1 2 3
ears
REVENUES/SAVINGS
REVENUES/SA VINGS
300,000
300,000
300,000
okers
evenues
Net
Net rrevenues from brokers 300,000 300,000 300,000
br
om
fr
300,000
300,000
Total Revenuesotal Revenues 300,000 300,000 300,000
300,000
EXPENSES
EXPENSES
(60,000)
Personnel
Personnel (60,000) (60,000) (60,000)
(60,000)
(60,000)
Rent (50,000) (50,000) (50,000)
Rent
(50,000)
(50,000)
(50,000)
(20,000)
Administrative expenses (20,000) (20,000) (20,000)
Administrative
expenses
(20,000)
(20,000)
(130,000)
(130,000)
Total Expensesotal Expenses (130,000) (130,000) (130,000)
(130,000)
170,000
170,000
170,000
Total Cashflowotal Cashflow 0 170,000 170,000 170,000
0.826
Discount Factor 1.000 0.909 0.826 0.751
0.751
Factor
Discount
1.000
0.909
154,545
127,724
PV Cashflow
140,496
PV Cashflow 0 154,545 140,496 127,724
NPV
1,044,576
NPV 1,044,576
Figure 8.3 Cash flow for a traditional brokerage company.