Aug 16 2007 11:50AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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It's easy for coverage of green to fall into cliches (If I see one more article that references Kermit the Frog, I will kill someone.) or the old "is it a fad?" discussion.

For our upcoming green issue, we did some market research, and not surprisingly there is a small group of remodelers that do think it's a fad. That's no surprise. I remember being told by some older remodelers back around 2000 that the Internet was a fad. They're not real sure about talkies yet, either.

But I think for the vast majority of remodelers we've moved beyond that discussion and it's now about the next step in the mainstreaming of green. From my discussions with remodelers, the most surprising trend was they're not talking about green with their clients because it has become such a loaded word. One Southern remodeler told me he can't use the word 'green' because to his clients the idea is all tied up with Al Gore and they sure as hell aren't going to do anything a Democrat would want them to. So instead he talks about reducing utility bills, longer-lasting products, etc.

I've heard similar stories from other remodelers, mostly for different reasons (although Al Gore's name did come up with another one). What are your clients thinking? Do they like the green ideas but not the label?

We're going to talk about some of these ideas in our September issue, so be sure to check it out.