Green Designations Gaining Ground for Real Estate Professionals

Real estate professional have a responsibility to their clients to be knowledgeable about current issues. Today, those issues include energy-efficiency, indoor air quality and sustainable design. Two real estate designation programs are providing the resources, knowledge and certification to back the green real estate professional: EcoBroker International and Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals (S.T.A.R.).

EcoBroker: EcoBroker is a Colorado-based company that offers online courses in energy-efficiency, indoor air quality and sustainable design. Professionals who complete the curriculum earn EcoBroker designation. Since it started in 2003, EcoBroker has certified nearly 2,000 real estate professionals.

EcoBroker offers this on their program:

If you are a licensed real estate agent, earn the EcoBroker Certified^® Designation while learning about the latest topics influencing the way your clients buy and sell real estate. EcoBroker helps you stay current with the growing green real estate market and the opportunities it presents. EcoBroker’s core curriculum offers innovative energy, environmental, and green strategies and tools for real estate professionals. Learn to reduce liabilities and increase buyer and seller satisfaction. Create competitive advantages in the marketplace and build business. The EcoBroker Designation is a positive and profitable way to differentiate yourself in today’s real estate market. Becoming an EcoBroker is a great opportunity for you to benefit your community and the planet, while broadening your base of training and earning more business.

EcoBroker International

S.T.A.R.: Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals (S.T.A.R.) is a certification program from Earth Advantage, a nonprofit green-building organization out of Portland. Earth Advantage has been central to the green building movement in the Pacific Northwest, including advocating for and securing a green home listing in the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS).

Here’s a snippet from Earth Advantage website about S.T.A.R.:

The audience for this program is realtors who want to differentiate themselves, and assist their clients in assessing the relative merit of homes in terms of energy and water efficiency, air quality and other “green” home features. Other professionals involved in real estate transactions such as title agents, inspectors, mortgage brokers and appraisers should also attend so they can more knowledgeably participate in transactions involving green homes. The training program will have relevance to both the existing and new home market.

Sustainability Training for Accredited Real Estate Professionals (S.T.A.R)

Personally, as a licensed realtor who has studied sustainable design, I am thrilled to see the industry embrace green ideals. Buildings are a primary source of waste, pollution and resource consumption. The more awareness that the real estate industry can provide and the more knowledge real estate professionals have the better it is for everyone. These types of designations are helping to mainstream the idea that green is good for people, the earth and the economy.

Green building is a multi-faceted endeavor that has environmental, economic, social and health implications. Here at Greener Assets, I look at the economic side of green. Over at Daily Tomorrow, I look at the science and health issues of green building (among many other topics) with the Monday series Green Building 101, which starts here and continues here. There are lots of green building links to check out in the blogroll at Daily Tomorrow, which I will be bringing over to this blog soon.

It doesn’t stop there, why would it? Green building is something I take very seriously so I also write about interesting green buildings and sustainable design over at Inhabitat. If you are interested in green building you might enjoy some of my recent articles:

• HOK’s LEED Gold-certified Straw Bale Building
• Medlock Ames Solar-powered Winery

You are probably getting the idea that this won’t be the last time Greener Assets digs on green building…and you would be right. It’s a fascinating and fast growing industry that is helping to solve many environmental issues while revving the economy and constantly presenting incredible creativity and designs. How could I possibly ignore that here at Greener Assets?