Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Ideas On Promoting The Concept Of Green Building

Posted by diana.graepel on 4/15/2009 at 11:58 AM ET 250 Points
Hi,

Could you please suggest some ideas / leads or simply share info on how to promote the concept of green building?

To be more specific, I’m interested in communicating this concept indirectly through the promotion a non-profit organization whose purpose is to encourage the transformation of the market, educational and legislative conditions necessary to forward high performance construction that is both sustainable and profitable.

Therefore, I would appreciate if you would share some ideas / examples of successful campaigns / events / tactics used in promoting green organizations and thus reaching the target audience:

- real estate developers and investors;

- architects, engineers;

- consultants;

- manufacturers;

- construction companies;

- technology companies;

- real estate agents;

- financial services providers.

Moreover, it would help if you would hint ways & channels to approach this audience and have them get involved to learn about green building, understand the importance of changing one’s business model towards sustainable construction and provide basic financial and time support for the organization.


Thank you in advance.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/15/2009 at 12:13 PM Accepted
    Hi Livia-- this is such a broad question I don't know where to begin.

    I was one of the founders of the CO Chapter, US Green Building Council. We built that chapter from nothing more than an idea to one of the strongest in the country.

    www.usgbc.org has a ton of info on "making the case" for Green Building. The A/D community follows this very closely- and to build to code nowadays, many of the criteria must be incorporated. So its not "changing their model". I truly believe that green building and building will be synonymous terms. We are almost there.

    The federal govt is one of the largest clients of USGBC. In fact, I have seen after construction case studies and they must present "opportunities missed", meaning green features they could have but didn't include.

    USGBC has paved the way for you. I don't know of an architect or GC that does not know about LEED, the rating system USGBC administrates. In addition, most manufacturers of building products promote the green attributes of their product and belong to orgs like usgbc, greenguard or FSC. I don't know what area you are in, but I am sure you have LEED certified buildings. I am no longer on the board, but I call on the groups you mention above-- and I talk about green building.

    We started out with monthly meetings, each with a great speaker and relevant topic. We did quarterly seminars. We did CEU seminars. We did fundraisers. All with for the majority of my tenure, with a volunteer only base.

    Where are you on this curve? Are you part of a larger org? If you give me more info, I am sure I can help.
  • Posted on 4/15/2009 at 2:20 PM Moderator
    One of the problems with these kinds of campaigns is that the call to action -- what you want your target audience to do next/now -- is so fuzzy.

    We have consulted to companies in the construction industry and the home improvement industry that wanted to take advantage of the interest in Green Building, and it was reasonably easy because they had a specific next step and an easy call to action.

    That's what you need. Download a white paper. Trigger a phone call to set up a face-to-face consultation. Share a highly relevant case study. Offer marketing assistance. Something to make your appeal immediate and valuable to the target audience.
  • Posted by simon.gloster on 4/16/2009 at 2:32 AM Member
    Hi

    You can also look at talking to universities. Some eng facilty would have a green (branch, division, foundation) that loves partnering with industry, specialists and just interested parties. Also in these places they will have builings in operation


    S
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 4/16/2009 at 8:39 AM Member
    Good posts. The reality is green building doens't cost more. The states of CA and PA both increased their budgets to building according to the LEED standard-- and found they didn't need it. Everything is LCA now, not only do green buildings cost less in the front end, they are more efficient in the long run. I did my masters thesis on this, and today, with codes we have in place, buildings are so efficient they cost 70% less to run than buildings 50 years ago.

    As far as "call to action"-- the prospect has multiple projects on their desk at any time. They are all calls to action.
  • Posted by diana.graepel on 4/23/2009 at 8:43 AM Author
    Thank you all for your answers. You've all been very helpful.
    Best,
    Diana
  • Posted by diana.graepel on 4/23/2009 at 9:28 AM Author
    @ Carol Blaha: thank you very much for your answer and insights; we were thinking monthly meetings, seminars and workshops as well, and also some guerilla tactics to meet our client's need to generate awareness at first and educate the possible future owners of green buildings.

    @ mgoodman: thank you for your answer as well, we considered having quite catchy slogans and clear / to-the-point communication in order to inform and educate on a quite new concept for our local market.

    @ mbarber: thank you for both websites, we gathered some very interesting info.

    @ simon.gloster: yes, thank you, we are considering this as well. actually, part of the membership program includes universities and students.

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