Page 280 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

258 CHAPTER 8

initially somewhat patronizing. No more. There’s still some pushback from some of
my broker colleagues. That’s OK. We’ll get there. We have to.
Sustainable brokerage combines the traditional real estate values of honesty, ethical
behavior, and integrity with a strong stewardship ethic, a dedication to community
service, and the realization that, both as individuals and as members of a company, we
bear responsibility for what happens in our back yard. By our actions, we hope to
leave a meaningful legacy for our children and grandchildren and generations to come.
We want to set an example that differentiates us from a traditional brokerage company,
both because we see it as a competitive advantage and because we believe it is the
right thing to do for us all. We intend to broker deals that enhance the quality of life
where we live.
The word “broker” comes from the old Spanish word alborque, meaning a gift given
at the consummation of a business transaction. Our gift is to be the real deal to our
clients: to facilitate deals of quality, deals that are meticulously researched and tire-
lessly nurtured and consummated with passion and integrity. Our gift is also to be the
real deal to our community: to work in ways that consider the best interests of the
place we call home. Our gift is to be the real deal to the next generation: to broker a
paradigm change in the kind of legacy we leave.
Like most gifts that come from the heart, without strings attached and with no par-
ticular intent to gain by the giving, we’re not sure how this gift of sustainable broker-
age will be regarded. Time will tell.

NOTES

1 E. O. Wilson, Biophilia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986).
2 Joseph J. Romm, Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity
by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999), pp. 16–27.
3 Ibid., p. 19.
4 Ray Anderson, Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface
Model (Atlanta: The Peregrinzilla Press, 1998), p. 7.
5 Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (New York:
HarperBusiness, 1993), p. xi.
6 Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman (New
York: Penguin Press, 2005), p. 4.
7 David Gottfried, Greed to Green: The Transformation of an Industry and a Life (Berkeley,
Calif.: WorldBuild Publishing, 2007), p. 105.
8 Jeffrey Hollender and Stephen Fenishcell, What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers
Is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business Is Listening (New York:
Basic Books, 2004), p. x.
9 Gary Hirshberg, Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (New York:
Hyperion, 2008), p. 195.
10 “The Green Quotient: Q&A with Brenna S. Walraven,” Urban Land, November/December
2007, p. 118.
11 Gregory H. Kats, “Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits: A Report to California’s
Sustainable Building Task Force,” 2003. Available from www.cap-e.com/ewebeditpro/items/
O59F3259.pdf.