The Yudelson Associates Blog: What's New
Monday, December 04, 2006
Green Building and Sustainability Consulting
Sometimes a green building and sustainability consultant gets to eat the food he recommends to others. As a consultant focused on marketing green buildings and green building services, it’s been people asking me, “Who are your target clients?” Anyone who’s started a new business knows that the early-stage clients often define the enterprise for a considerable time, yet are indispensable. The marketplace tells each business what it wants most, in terms of what it’s willing to pay for. In the case of Yudelson Associates, it’s market intelligence, good business advice and a “hands on” approach to delivering it. Our clients to date include venture capital firms; very large and very small developers; architects and engineers wanting advice on green building marketing; projects looking for design assistance; a large building products manufacturer; organizations seeking an insightful speech or inspiring workshop; a university or a company trying to implement a sustainability program; and the list goes on. In each case, we’re trying to meet our corporate vision: “growing the business of green building,” allowing each client to contribute to that idea. It’s like jazz in a way, a central theme, with a lot of riffs. What are your experiences of growing a business?
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/04/2006 at 04:53 AM
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Saturday, December 02, 2006
LEED vs. Green Globes, Part Two
As much as LEED dominates the commercial and institutional green building certification arena, the opposite is true for the residential green home certification market, which is currently dominated by utilities in some metro areas and local homebuilder associations (HBAs) in others. There are “Built Green” HBA programs licensed in seven states, as well as a strong following for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) voluntary certification guidelines. Independent programs, such as Build It Green in California are also well established. By one insider count, there are at least 65 green building certification programs around the country. A product of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Green Globes has formed a close association with the NAHB and must be considered a formidable competitor for the USGBC’s LEED for Homes program, a butterfly that has yet to emerge from the protective cocoon of the current pilot program. When LEED entered the market in 2000, there were no other building certification competitors, so it had an open field to make mistakes and mature as the widely accepted certification it is today. The same will not be true for LEED for Homes when it rolls out a version 2.0 sometime in 2007. It will face an uphill battle for industry acceptance, which it may decide not to fight, in favor of going straight to the home buyer with a coalition of environmental and consumer groups (this is just speculation on my part, but is a strategy that may be adopted in some degree by USGBC.) Insider tip: Look for green home certifications to be a major new battleground for the green building movement over the next 24 months.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/02/2006 at 03:27 PM
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Friday, December 01, 2006
LEED vs. Green Globes, Part One
Recent conversations and developments seem to make it clear that, in comparison with the dominant LEED standard, the Green Globes rating system is going to be primarily a niche player in the commercial and institutional markets. The GSA report to Congress on September 15th, made it clear that the federal government was going to be and remain a strong supporter of LEED certification for its own projects. The addition of nearly 8,000 LEED Accredited Professionals over the last few months, to bring the total to more than 33,000, gives LEED an insurmountable marketing advantage in those hundreds of project meetings that take place each week to discuss project certification goals. After spending nearly $1,000 on workshops, publications and test costs, to say nothing of untold hours of study to pass the exam, most professionals have an emotional commitment to the LEED system and process. This is not to minimize the energetic support for Green Globes in certain quarters, such as Building Design & Construction magazine. Finally, recent activities by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to add a “Portfolio management” section to LEED for organizations that build dozens or hundreds of copies of a single prototype each year, have brought the Home Depots, PNC Banks and a host of other retailers into the LEED camp.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 12/01/2006 at 02:11 PM
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