Building Business

New Green Ratings System Created to Certify New Products

The Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII), created by William McDonough, California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger and representatives of Shaw Industries Group, is a nonprofit that further developed the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certification process by creating a rating system to certify new products.  As discussed in a recent article for Eco Structure, Green Products Innovation Institute Launched, C2C criteria assess products in five areas: material health, take-back, renewable energy, clean water, and social fairness. The GPII certification will allow companies to share details of the chemistry makeup of its products in an effort to eliminate harmful and contaminated materials in all products produced in California. 

@NeilAndrewJames

Sell Relationships, Not Services, at Association Networking Events

Each year, the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association publishes an internal newsletter, Impact!, which promotes new members and provides a subtle networking platform for businesses.  However, in an article for Construction Marketing Ideas, Association Engagement and Marketing, Mark Buckshon writes that he has “rarely seen any that fully use the opportunity to show what they share rather than sell.” It’s proven difficult for businesses to use their membership to share knowledge and wisdom; most just try to sell their services right out of the gate. The main objective in this networking platform is to develop business relationships where new opportunities arise naturally and easily, rather than as a forced expectation. Once a business understands this delicate balance, they will be able to utilize the association membership to its full advantage; consistently bringing new business in the door.

@JoniArtz

Wall Street Journal: Builders Failing at Green Building

Sustainability. LEED. Net-Zero. These terms, alien to the building products industry a decade ago, are now fixtures in the industry’s lexicon. With all the emphasis on green practices, initiatives designed to reduce the environmental footprint of homes surely have been successful, right? Hold the phone, says Dawn Wotapka in an article for the Wall Street Journal, Home Builders Lag in Building Green. According to Wotapka, innovation hasn’t been the problem. Builders are introducing more eco-friendly features than ever before. Where they are lacking, Wotapka says, has been in stimulating consumer demand and effectively communicating the benefits of going green, overcoming price objections. Despite industry shortcomings, Wotapka notes however, mega-builders such as KB Home and Pulte have maintained a strong commitment to efficient, economical and eco-friendly homes.

@NeilAndrewJames

Few Believe Completely Green Homes Are Affordable

Consumers and builders alike believe in the importance of and the benefits to green building. The disconnect is occurring when the waiter brings the check. And although nearly everyone believes that green homes are affordable to live in, a new survey, as chronicled in an article for ApplianceMagazine, Green Homes Seen As Affordable to Live In, Expensive to Build, found that only high-income respondents believed a completely green home would be affordable to purchase. These opinions were not exclusive to homebuyers. A similar builder survey found that 30 percent of builders felt that green homes were too expensive for middle-income families. Sixty percent builders felt the same about green homes and low-income families. 

@NeilAndrewJames

Is LEED Certification Unnecessary For Green Building Construction?

LEED certification costs have proved too costly for some companies, but that doesn’t mean buildings aren’t being built according to certification system standards.  In an article for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, LEED Certification Boosts Cost of Going Green, Connie Engel states that “we’ve been doing it for years: recycling, water conservation, all kinds of things generally considered green, (but) we don’t want to pay the cost” of certification.  The paperwork to apply for LEED certification can cost tens of thousands of dollars, a cost building owners don’t necessarily want to pass down to their tenants.  Is it possible LEED certification is not necessary to construct a “green” building?

@JoniArtz

How to Sell Green Building Products To a Color-Blind Market

Despite the social benefits of going green, the statistics are still overwhelming: only 15 percent of consumers identify themselves as green advocates according to American Standard Brands. How do you tell your building product’s compelling green story to the 85 percent of consumers who are in no mood to listen? According to Jean Dimeo in her article for Eco Home Magazine, Marketing Tips for Green Homes, the key is to emphasize a different shade of green – that green shade of dollar bills. A new survey from the Pulte Group found that among new-home buyers, nearly half would spend $2,000 to $6,000 to lower their monthly utility bills by $30. Deborah Meyer, Senior Vice President of the Pulte Group, urges marketers to keep it simple – focus on how much it costs to operate the home, no more, no less. 

@NeilAndrewJames

Green Building Starts Represented One-Quarter of 2010 U.S. New Construction

The growth of green building is saving our environment. Can it save our economy as well? A new report from McGraw-Hill Construction, Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth, outlines the dramatic post-crash growth of green building and offers several promising predictions. According to the survey, the value of green building construction starts grew 50 percent over the past two years from $42 billion to $55-71 billion. In addition, 25 percent of all new construction activity in 2010 was comprised of green building construction starts. The growth of green is not merely resulting from residential consumer demand. McGraw-Hill projects the value of nonresidential green construction to triple over the next five years, representing $120-141 billion in new construction.

@NeilAndrewJames

How Building Products Marketers Can Utilize Mobile

Remember back when your project managers and line supervisors didn’t have cell phones? You’ve probably blocked it from memory. For all the times that little device kept you from enjoying vacations, tethering you to your business, it has ultimately proved to be an indispensible tool in your company’s day-to-day operations. Yet, despite in-field use, few building products companies are fully leveraging the mobile phone as a marketing device. Pat Curry breaks down the basics of mobile marketing for building products marketers in an article for Builder Online, Mobile Mindset. Curry implores marketers to ensure their websites are optimized for mobile technology, creating concise, focused websites that cull content down to only what visitors find most important. In addition, Curry extols the power of tying mobile websites to text messaging campaigns. As an example, Curry outlines a scenario where a sign in front of model home could direct prospects to send a text message with a specific code to an agent, generating an automated response containing a link with information about the house. 

@NeilAndrewJames

Home Depot Sees Dip in Contractor Business

The building products industry is no exception to the Pareto Principle: 80 percent of your sales are from 20 percent of your customers. In the building products industry, these heavy users often wear the title “contractor” or “pro.” And as ProSales Online reports in a recent article, Home Depot continues to see its business in this high-volume market segment lag. While contractors are believed to approximate 30 percent of Home Depot’s sales, millwork and building supplies, historically contractor-heavy lines, experienced significant sales declines during third quarter. Big-ticket sales (over $900) were also down by 3.4 percent. Nevertheless, Home Depot’s CEO Frank Blake reported that net earnings in the third quarter did grow 21 percent from the year-earlier period.

@NeilAndrewJames

For Building Products Brands, Small and Agile Can Beat Big Box

Sure you can’t afford to sponsor the NFL on Fox post-game show or deluge the nation’s most populated markets with a heavy television advertising blitz. But that’s not an excuse to curl up into a fetal position and wave the white flag! Small building products companies, as chronicled by Carla Waldemar in an article for Building Products Digest, The Secret of Success? Think Small, are embracing their size as a competitive advantage and carving out success. Waldemar highlights a small Oregon lumberyard, Withers Lumber, whose only rule is to have no rules. Withers Lumber strives to serve its clientele on as individual a basis as possible, offering unlimited free delivery, product-knowledge sessions and regular customer appreciation events. 

@NeilAndrewJames