Page 348 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

326 CHAPTER 10

This strategy was particularly successful for Melaver, Inc. in leasing Abercorn
Common and introducing the center to the Savannah community. An on-site leasing
center also serves as a green building education experience and the point of contact
for the myriad tours given to school groups and professionals eager to see some of
the development’s key green features. The center has also served variously as a
venue for the district’s congressional representative to launch a new energy policy
initiative, the site of the community-wide showing of the documentary Kilowatt
Ours, and a showcase to convince a local school to build its new middle school to
LEED standards.

A CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
There’s every chance that you won’t need it, but if your business does experience a
crisis that has implications for any of your key targets, having a crisis communications
plan in place will ensure that you do the best possible job communicating the facts
of the situation. The golden rule of crisis communications is that it is crucial in a cri-
sis to tell it all, tell it fast, and tell the truth. If you do this you will have done all you
can to minimize the negative effects of the situation.
By definition, a crisis would be something unanticipated that threatens the integrity
or reputation of your company, usually because it would bring on adverse or negative
media attention. The crisis could be anything from a legal dispute to an accident, a fire,
or a manmade disaster that could be attributed to your company. Fortunately, we have
seen only one instance of this with Melaver, Inc., when a small flurry of letters to the
editor of the Savannah Morning News complained about the parking spaces set aside
for hybrid cars at Abercorn Common. The SUV crowd wrote in to say that they found
these privileged parking spaces to be insulting, while several members with handi-
capped license plates wrote in to say that they felt their own interests were being
ignored. A team of us from Melaver met quickly with the latter group (the former were
not interested in meeting with us) to hear their concerns and make the necessary
adjustments.
A crisis communications plan is a document that details the chain of events, the key
spokespeople, and how they can be reached in an emergency (home and mobile phone
numbers). Your plan should address:

1 Who will assess the situation and brief the management team.
2 Who will develop and deliver a public statement. (Typically this is your CEO or the
highest ranking member of your leadership team who is available, with the help of
your PR team.)
3 What the public statement will say. Even if you do not yet have complete informa-
tion, it is often important to issue a statement to that effect: “We do not yet have the
information we need to answer your questions but are working on it and will have
a conference call/press conference/issue another statement by XX time.” Make sure
everyone who answers the phone has a copy of the statement.