Go Broke or Go Green

by Frank O’brien – Western Investor

Erich Schwartz, a former science teacher who now consults on the business of sustainability, has a lesson for real estate developers and others still sitting on the green fence. “It’s time to stop talking.” said Schwartz, who heads Vancouver based Greenomics. “it is time to take action.”

Schwartz, who has dutifully sat through the apparently endless seminars, workshops, study sessions and conferences that frame so much of the green movement, said the evidence is in, and the bottom-line benefits are too positive to ignore.

Those developers and contractors who are not building energy savings, recycling and sustainability into their projects, he said, are simply cheating the eventual owner and tenants. It will become increasingly expensive to own, live or work in a non-green building, he explained.

Schwartz was reacting to reports that, in the face of an economic downturn, some real estate developers seem ready to jettison green construction techniques in favour of lower costs. The study, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 by PricewaterhouseCoopers notes that, “Portfolio problems, the construction stall-out and increasing angst could distract from the push to reduce buildings’ carbon footprints and install green technologuies.”

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This article reprinted with permission from Western Investor magazine. Visit www.westerninvestor.com to find an outlet near you.