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Building Green in a Black and White World-- Chapter 3

The following is an exerpt from the book Building Green in a Black and White World.
Section 2; Chapter 3; Part 1; Chapter Three Introduction

David Ritchey Johnston
January 1, 1900
HousingZone

Start Where You Are

It is best to start where your market is now and work from there. If you start gradually, you won’t make expensive mistakes, and you will learn what does and doesn’t work for you.

-------Local Market Conditions--------

Your experience is your best guide. You know what your customers want because you have successfully built and sold homes for years. Building differently takes careful consideration of the changes you will make and the additional costs you might incur in the process. Starting to build green requires your best judgment at every step.

Hammer What customers want in Colorado or California is different from what they want in Michigan or Iowa. In the West, water conservation and clean air are major opportunities to address. In the Mid-West, where energy is expensive and the climate is cold, builders have been improving energy efficiency for years. Energy may not be the best way to differentiate yourself in such locations. But through increasing energy efficiency, your competition may have inadvertently created indoor air quality problems by building tighter homes. Therefore, building homes that emphasize good indoor air quality might be just the thing to get your buyers’ attention.

At the same time, homebuyers don’t always know what they want. They know what they like when they see it, but if no green options are available, and if no model homes include green features, they may not realize that they have a choice.

Continue to Give Your Customers Choices