Everybody’s talking “green” today, but are they talking to each other? One thing I know for sure is that Realtors are being left out of the mix. In Portland,Oregon, Realtors are just now seeing the importance of being green-educated and understanding the significance of the green movement as it pertains to their real estate careers. The problem is in the disconnect between governmental agencies, grass roots organizations and the realty community. The city and county organizations touting green building and sustainability have been developing very worthwhile programs that benefit home buyers and sellers but they have failed to recognize the best conduit for their programs…..Realtors. Less than two years ago the City of Portland’s office of sustainable development had never been contacted by a realtor who requested that the speak at their branch to better learn about their sustainability efforts. If they didn’t think about teaming with realtors, who else? Well, just about every organization that I contacted who had developed programs for energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling and green building, had never been approached by a Realtor who wanted to learn more about their programs.

As a managing broker, I would invite speakers to my branch to teach about the various programs and I could see the high level of interest in the eyes of my agents. They not only wanted to learn more about these subjects, but they wanted to participate in the cause. As we built a Green Team of over fifty agents, our quest to be educated on these subjects became a quest to be physically involved. We greened our office by replacing our light bulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, we organized a E-recycling event and recycled 3.5 tons of computer equipment, we volunteered at a local computer recycling facility in order to earn referbished computers for those who could not afford them, we became part of the solution.

I am charging you in the realty community to open the lines of communication with these green organizations. They need you, but just don’t know it. In essence, you need to partner with these organizations and help them with their outreach efforts. This year I became a board member for Solar Oregon as part of my effort to personally be involved in developing programs that Realtors can take to their customers that will help them understand and implement solar energy for their homes.

This week I was dismayed to read that the Oregon Real Estate Agency was examining a proposal to update the education requirments for Oregon Realtors without any green subject matter being included in the course requirement. How could this be? Oregon is one of, if not the greenest states in the country. There are more LEED certified buildings in Portland than any other city. This is a prime example of the disconnect I am talking about. We can close this disconnect if the Realtor community acts now. Commit to becoming a certified green agent. Investigate your local programs and watch for the Green Agent designation being unvailed this November in Florida at the NAR Convention. I was honored to be part of the panel that helped build the curriculum for this course as we met in Chicago at the NAR headquarters this month. I do not consider myself an expert in green building and sustainable living, but I do consider myself and advocate and one who recognizes that we in the residential real estate industry have to do all we can to close the disconnect.

The change that I have witnessed in the last two years has been astonishing! When earlier this year the Portland’s office of sustainable development called me and asked if I would participate in their green building policy workshops, I knew I had become part of their effort and that they would not be making decisions in a vacuum.

Green building and sustainability is not a fad or just a current trend. It is the future and it is exciting. Learn and join in, you are going to love the ride.

Joe Menashe