Watch out for green washing

I’ve been interested in green buildings ever since a family member was involved in the construction of one. So far, I’ve even written two articles about green buildings for the REEA Journal. That being said, however, I am increasingly concerned about the phenomenon of green washing and how it may affect consumers’ confidence in the real estate profession. (Wikipedia has a great definition of green washing.)

As consumers become increasingly educated about and concerned with green building techniques and features of green buildings, I think that real estate licensees need to take special care to ensure they are qualified to speak to those attributes of a home or commercial building. They should learn about the various green standards that can be applied to properties, including (but not limited to) United States Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes and LEED for Commercial buildings, NAHB’s National Green Building Standards. Use sources available from the EPA and US Department of Energy or consider taking additional formal education such as the new NAR Green Designation. Don’t allow yourself or your clients to be misled by green washing. Become a credible source of information.

Related posts:

1. Green renovations reap energy savings

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Tags: building, green, washing

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.