Robert stated that Pulte's Las Vegas operation has successfully embraced certain green building practices that significantly improve the performance of the homes they build. Robert cited that these products and practices don't require major change management within the organization and can be accomplished for under $1,000 per home in the Las Vegas area. Kudos to Pulte, Las Vegas for transcending the resistance that some volume builders have historically had to adopting new products and techniques that would impact their business systems and cost structure.
The second bit of information was shared with me by Ron Jarvis, vice president of merchandising at The Home Depot. A thoughtful, sincere, and intelligent man, Ron was the person who was tasked with resolving Rainforest Action Network's (RAN) two-year international campaign against The Home Depot for the sale of old growth forest products.
Ron recalls that his investigation into The Home Depot's environmental impact unleashed his latent passion for sustainability. Since that time, he has directed the company to adopt greener business practices, including the phasing out of all old growth forest products and launching Eco Options, a labeling program that identifies environmentally appropriate products within stores. In our meeting, Ron offered his vision for the future of The Home Depot—that all environmentally harmful products would eventually be eliminated from stores, replaced by better, less expensive, green products that had an alphanumeric certification system that made it easy for customers to rate the sustainability levels of the products they purchase.
Dedicated leaders like Robert and Ron are assets to the green building sector. As Pulte and The Home Depot incorporate larger amounts of green products and practices into their organizations, they not only raise the bar for competitors, they also alter the entire financial outlook for the industry. High-volume purchasing from Pulte or The Home Depot could drastically shift the supply/demand curve for green products, driving prices down and leading to new clean technology and green product development.
The entire industry, Pulte and The Home Depot included, have a far way to go before we achieve the colossal changes needed to affect real change in our environmental footprint or the supply/demand curve. But, after my conversations with Robert and Ron, I am more optimistic than ever that we're on the right track.
Posted: 10/13/2009 12:00:00 AM by
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