Home professionals service hundreds, even thousands, of clients. They educate these clients on making the best decisions for their homes, including everything from design to construction.
Because they reach so many people and are in a position of influence, are professionals obligated to support the green movement and promote it where they can? Interested in seeing what our expert had to say? See the top 5 comments here…
Blog-Off #10 Re-Cap
For our tenth Blog-Off, Green Expert Elena Velkov of Second Use asked our panel of expert interior designers, contractors, realtors and green builders to weigh in on the following question:
Are Professionals Obligated to Support and Promote the Green Movement?
Since home professionals are in the position to potentially influence a large group of people (their clients), do you think they have an obligation to evangelize going green? Do you think there is “pressure” to do this? If so, do you think this pressure is justified?
How do you incorporate green suggestions into your business? Do you “practice what you preach” in your own daily lives?
We are compiling the information from our experts into a must-read article on just how many experts believe it is their duty to promote the green movement. As a preview to this article, we wanted to outline the top 5 comments from our experts.
eLocal Blog-Off #10 Comment Awards
Most Insightful Comment
Jeff Meyers of Mr. Electric had the most insightful comment:
“Professionals do not have an obligation to support and promote the green movement. It’s nice and it’s a good thing, but to say that a professional is obliged to do so is maybe pushing it a little.
As an electrical company, improving our service is our goal. For some customers, this implicitly means ‘going green.’ Providing customers with the option to ‘go green’ is definitely something that Mr. Electric aims to do. However, to deny customers other options would be foolish. “
Jeff used his own company as an example of why promoting green should be a subset of a business, not the main strategy. If an organization caters to all homeowners, it needs to account for all types of requests. Not every customer is going to want (or be able to afford) going green, especially if an organization’s customer base is made up of a national market. Thus, suggesting green options to the homeowners who want them, but still accommodating non-green alternatives, makes good business sense.
See the rest of Jeff’s comment.
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Most Thought-Provoking Comment
Trish Holder of Greenspiration Home had the most thought-provoking comment:
“There is pressure to get with the green movement. The pressure is justified simply because lousy construction has become so accepted, and consumers are none-the-wiser. They don’t know how to evaluate quality construction and the industry is so full of bad contractors that the problem has really gotten out of hand. Bad construction leads to an endless cycle of waste (energy, water, and material waste) and all of this leads to declining property value. Just consider what an undetected leak and subsequent mold damage does to a home. So, YES, the pressure is justified from homeowners/consumers who have every right to want to protect their investments. They ultimately pay the price for bad construction.”
Trish pointed out an interesting factor contributing to the decline of the green movement. Poor construction causes a lot of waste, from the materials needed to fix the problem to the materials thrown away after demolition. If green practices are embraced, there will be less waste. In addition, green installers generally need special training, so the chances of shoddy workmanship could be significantly reduced.
See the rest of Trish’s comment here.
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Most Unique Comment
This award goes to Cindy from Staged4More:
“I think professionals need to be responsible when it comes to selling green products. There are a lot of greenwashing in real estate and as a home stager, I see a lot of that. Builders will buy cheap bamboo that use toxic glue and call it green flooring, which consumers can mistakenly think that’s what ‘green flooring’ mean. There are movements right now to change the MLS system to identify real green features and to curb those greenwashers. I think as an industry, we need to be responsible about the message we send to general public.”
Cindy took a unique angle on the question at hand, pointing out how sometimes support of the green movement can have bad intentions. Greenwashing is “the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources. It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing” (Wikiipedia). Cindy brings up a good point: sometimes the pressure to go green causes professionals to make unjustified claims in order to appear more green than they really are. Thus, if you are going to support the green movement, make sure you are educated and promoting the correct facts. False claims not only misguide homeowners, they can hurt your business.
See the rest of Cindy’s answer here.
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Best Articulated Comment
This award goes to DeAnna Radaj of Bante Design:
“No-professionals do NOT have an obligation to support/promote any cause, trend or movement. A business owner/professional should focus on THEIR company’s mission statement & what they excel at. Their only “obligation” is to service their clients with products, services & information that they say they have/contract to do…if a company/contractor implements something ‘just because’ or misrepresents their marketing message, products/services or expertise to jump on a trend, they are doing a DIS-service to their clients & their company’s mission statement if they themselves don’t believe in it.”
DeAnna says it perfectly: a business needs to focus on its own customers using its own expertise. There are endless preferences among homeowners and not all of those will revolve around the green space. In response to this, not all businesses will focus on green solutions. It is an organization’s responsibility to choose a segment to cater to and stick with it, regardless if it is the green niche or not.
See the rest of DeAnna’s comment here.
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Best Advice
This award goes to Anna Hackman of GreenTalk:
“If you are going to offer green alternatives, make sure you are knowledgeable yourself and not simply jumping on the band wagon. Be aware that there are varying degrees of green so you should be well versed in all aspects (light green to dark green). There is so much green washing out there, that no wonder the public doesn’t trust ‘green.’”
Anna also picks up on the green washing problem. She offers great advice to professionals: avoid green washing by educating yourself on all the different “shades of green.” Going green isn’t an all-or-nothing task. There are endless combinations of green practices and features that a homeowner can implement into his/her home. being versed in all these different combinations will allow you to help homeowners and more effectively run your business.
See the rest of Anna’s comments here.
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