Putting the Green in Green

By Jim Moody, CAE
President, Construction Suppliers Association

Until recently, I’ve thought about “green building” when I couldn’t fall asleep. Worked better than Sominex. The subject has been a non-starter with dealers I’ve talked to. The most common comment I got when I broached the subject was “I’ve never had a customer come in and ask for anything green.”

I suspect we’ve all regarded “green” as something for the tree-hugging leftists out West, but we always knew that it would creep eastward. Just not today. But, in the past three or four months, I’ve noticed an uptick in the questions I’ve gotten about green building. It’s prompted me to do some research and even to attend a green building forum held (appropriately) on St. Patrick’s Day.

I walked in thinking I was somewhat ignorant on the subject. What I learned was that pretty much everyone is ignorant on the subject because there just isn’t much “there” there. For instance, there is no real, accepted definition for green building. Ask a thousand people, and you’ll get a thousand answers. Ultimately, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, green building will be whatever your customer thinks it is – once he decides that green is indeed what he wants.

And that time may be sooner than we think. I was surprised to learn that Atlanta was sixth in market demand for green products, behind only California, New York, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest and Austin. It was my impression that there was no market demand in Atlanta for any products, much less green ones. But, there must be some demand, or Atlanta wouldn’t have been on the list (unless it was accidentally mixed with the list of most foreclosures).

The Greater Atlanta Home Builders developed a program to push green housing called EarthCraft Homes. The developer in my neighborhood changed builders about a year ago, and the new builder put up big signs touting EarthCraft. Perhaps that’s a big driver for green in the Atlanta area. Of course, not one of those lots has sold, but that’s another sad story for another day.

So let’s assume demand is knocking on our doorsteps. All that certification/chain of custody stuff is so confusing. What should we do?

The first thing I would suggest you do is focus your green thoughts on products other than lumber. In LEED certification, which is the standard for now, certified lumber gets a builder as much credit as putting in a bike rack (and yes, I mean that literally). In other words, it’s just not worth the trouble or expense. I’m hearing that customers may ask you to include certified lumber in your bid and then it quickly gets value-engineered out.

If you want to provide certified lumber, you have to get a chain-of-custody certificate. This can cost several thousand dollars. If you’ve already got one, good for you. Let’s hope the business is there for you to see a return on that investment. If you don’t have a chain-of-custody certificate today, it might be something that can wait for better times and a bigger market demand.

So if you aren’t focusing on the lumber, what should you think about? Anything that is sustainable, toxin-free, waste-reducing (yes, trusses are inherently green), energy-saving, water-saving, etc. You already sell many products that are considered green, and many of those are higher-end products. The key is for you to market them effectively to drive demand for these. You’ll be helping the environment, but it can also improve your bottom line.

It seems to me that at least for now, we need to view green as an opportunity to upsell rather than as a list of onerous rules and regulations that are difficult to understand. I grant that you may not have had any customers ask for green when they walked in the door. But you also probably have not had customers walk in and ask for your most expensive line of products, yet you have certainly upsold many customers by touting the benefits of your higher-end products. I submit to you that “green” is just one more way to convince customers to go beyond the basic product lines. Treat green as the friend, not foe.

There are a couple of resources that can be helpful as you consider how heavily you want to market green products. CSA is a partner in the Certified Green Dealer program, developed by LBM Journal. The focus of this program is educating your sales people on green products so that they can honestly and effectively communicate the benefits of green to your customers. Visit http://www.certifiedgreendealer.com/ for more information.

Also, BlueLinx has launched a sustainability program and portfolio of “ecoproducts” called PureBlue. This is not a paid commercial, and there are probably similar programs from other providers, but this is the one I’m most familiar with. You can find more information here. They also have a presentation called “Making Sense of Green” that is interesting and enlightening. You can request a copy from Shiloh.kelly@bluelinxco.com.

So here’s the bottom line: Green is coming, whether we want it or not. You can choose to ignore it and find yourself behind the times, or you can embrace it. When you embrace it, you may find that it’s not as complex or difficult to implement as you first thought. It may simply be an additional way to market your products, and it very well could help you push customers to higher-end and higher-margin items.