By Don McCoy Earth Advantage S.T.A.R./EcoBroker®

Our Southern Oregon Multi Listing Service has added 3 green certifications to the Sellers listing paper work. True story! This shows a serious and eventful mile stone in our communities' history of going green and our commitment to the future. The certifications will be for newly constructed Energy Star, Earth Advantage and LEED-H homes.

It is a great beginning and adds credibility to the effort to get the information out about the incentives for building green and sustainable homes. This starting point will prove easy in training Realtors on the differences and in the ability for the Home Owner show proof or verification that there is third party certification for their home. There is no reason to overwhelm the uneducated with a long list of green features and language that is foreign to the Realtor®.

By Don McCoy
October 2007

Building Science Technologies and Green Building are on the center stage of attention and a new act is playing in the way we're building homes.  Put down the hammer and saw and pick up the drill.  Get over the "I am a friend of the lumber industry" mantra and know that lumber, like horses will always be around, especially when we start applying different materials to building homes. The winds of change are upon us and necessarily so.

Oh, the horses part? Since we found new ways to get around with out using horses we will find more important leisurely and significant uses for lumber as we change our choice of materials in building houses. As the Blacksmith looked up to see what was making that sputtering and rumbling noise while he was unknowingly hammering out the last of his horse shoes he may have quickly adjusted to selling tires and fixing them instead. Or he just turned away muttering to him self that horseless carriages had no future.