Page 326 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

304 CHAPTER 10

sion-driven approach. When the USGBC launches a set of standards for a new type of
development it is not surprising to see Melaver involved in a pilot project. For exam-
ple, when USGBC launched LEED, Melaver’s Whitaker Building project was one of
the first to be certified. Abercorn Common was the first LEED certified all-retail cen-
ter in the country (and a pilot project in the LEED Core and Shell program). The com-
pany has just completed its renovation of a 19th-century historic home that is in the
LEED for Homes pilot project, earning a LEED Platinum rating in the process. At this
writing, Melaver is engaged in the development of Sustainable Fellwood, a low-
income housing development in Savannah, Georgia that’s an early entrant into the
LEED Neighborhood Development pilot program. The bottom line is that, rather than
a formulaic, project-of-the-month approach, Melaver exhibits a long-term commit-
ment to the sometimes steep learning curve that comes with pioneering. The genuine-
ness of initiatives such as these cannot be faked in the marketplace.
Authenticity and transparency. There was a time when tenancy and purchase deci-
sions followed a rather formulaic approach. Market trends, cost per square foot, loca-
tion, size and accessibility, and, to a lesser degree, operating costs were all spreadsheet
entries in what was, at the time, a tried-and-true approach to making a buying or leas-
ing decision. But the marketplace for green building is an increasingly sophisticated
one. In addition to those tried-and-true traditional metrics, potential tenants and buy-
ers interested in sustainable developments consider different project attributes when
making their decisions. Buildings are perceived in terms of their relative health. In
addition to the obvious savings accrued through energy efficiencies, employers are
looking at harder-to-measure benefits such as decreased churn, lower absenteeism, and
greater productivity. In a crowded field where insincere greenwashing abounds, authen-
ticity and transparency make communication simpler and more effective. You don’t
have to fabricate benefits—the potential market already understands those. You simply
have to show how you’re delivering them.

Phase 2A: Green Marketing 101

for a Different Type of Product

You can build it, but they won’t necessarily come. If you are a sustainable developer,
you’re not only competing against other sustainable facilities—you are also compet-
ing against the existing inventory of conventionally developed real estate. While mar-
keting green products and services does have unique challenges, it is still, in the end,
marketing. And it still boils down to solving three basic problems: what, who, and
how, or, in marketing parlance—message (what you want to say), target (whom you
want to reach), and means (how you will deliver your message to your target).
Knowing what your project really is and creating an identity for it comprise challenge
number one. Deciding whom you want to tell about it is the second hurdle. Finally,
you want to know how to go about telling them. Message. Target. Means.