Certified Green Broker: Helping Buyers Find Green Buildings
Many of my recent posts have touched upon the theme that the building industry cannot accomplish major advances in sustainability by itself; first its market must change.
But there is ample evidence that consumers are now driving a change in the market. The USGBC website has printed a report by CoStar Group which has found “that sustainable “green” buildings outperform their peer non-green assets in key areas such as occupancy, sale price and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins…. The results indicate a broader demand by property investors and tenants for buildings that have earned either LEED® certification or the Energy Star® label and strengthen the “business case” for green buildings, which proponents have increasingly cast as financially sound investments.” The report goes on to cite “constricted supply” as one reason for the premium prices associated with sustainable buildings, and many other experts have been making the case lately that consumers either cannot find the kind of sustainable housing that they are looking for, or cannot identify what makes a property sustainable.
Fortunately, The Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA) are about to provide a bridge between designers and consumers in the form of a new professional certification, Certified Green Broker®. Jason McLennan, CEO of Cascadia, says, “It is often the brokers and finance professionals, not the architects and builders, who directly interface with the end user: the owner, landlord, and/or tenant. Therefore they have great influence on how owners and users may perceive the affordability and overall value of green buildings.”
The IRS has had tax deductions in place through the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which allow taxpayers to deduct the cost of energy-efficient equipment installed in commercial buildings they own. But publicly-owned buildings aren’t taxed, and therefore, there is no additional tax savings to the building owner. However, the law allows the designer of the energy-saving portion of a public building to claim the tax credit.
The city of the future is not going to be a Jetson-esque collection of bubbles in the air, or towers connected by monorails, or any other radical vision. The city of the future will be more like that in 
, mostly recognizably familiar older buildings. Most of the city of the future has already been built and is standing. Certainly new buildings will 
Today’s guest is Ryan Chao, Executive Director of 
Photo Credit: Village HomesIn 1973 California architect/developer Michael and Judy Corbett revolutionized community design with their blueprint for the now world-famous community called Village Homes, in Davis, CA. 
Buying, remodelling or even furnishing your home are big tasks on their own - but making them green? Well that's another story all together.
Photo Credit: 611 EcoVillageDeciding to explore my own cityscape for some local green inspiration, I recently discovered the 7-year old Oakland Ecovillage and its founder Dan Antolioni. Talking with Dan today, I was again reminded that ecovillages seek to both address our impact on the environment and also focus on how we can create sustainable social ecosystems in the world around us.
