Own Revelstoke http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp Revelstoke Real Estate, Properties and Lifestyle Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:32:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Greenwashing http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=478 http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=478#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:44:52 +0000 Mark http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=478 I was recently in a meeting with a developer interested in hiring my company to manage the marketing and sales of their new community. They seemed like a good fit, they talked about sustainable development practices, ethical corporate culture and striving to be “light on the land”. I was excited, finally a developer that gets it. My excitement faded when the head of their company grabbed himself a plastic bottled water, downed it then tossed the bottle in the waste basket (not even the recycling bin right beside it). I did a bit more research and discovered their properties did not even offer the most basic recycling programs. Where there is smoke there is usually fire. I’m trying not to be Saint Mark here but when is enough? I did not work with this developer. My guiding question now is ” what kind of world do I want to pass on to my children and grand children?” It’s tough to make changes in our mind but really not that hard in practice in the moment. It all comes down the the simple decisions we make in the moment. Here is a phrase you will hear more and more in the the coming years…beware.

Greenwashing is a term describing the deceptive use of green PR or green marketing in order to promote a misleading perception that a company’s policies or products (such as goods or services) are environmentally friendly. The term green sheen has similarly been used to describe organizations that attempt to show that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment.

Greenwashing may be described as “spin.”

I welcome your comments.

]]> http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?feed=rss2&p=478 0 Beyond Bricks and Sticks – Developing Value Added Real Estate http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=449 http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=449#comments Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:39:36 +0000 Mark http://ownrevelstoke.com/wp/?p=449 I came home the other night and my wife was cooking up an excellent Indian dinner. I walked in and their was the wonderful smells of exotic spices and traditional Indian Sitar music playing.  The meal was delicious and my wife and I had a wonderful dining experience at home.  Here is what’ s unique about this… The meal was  prepacked, nutritious Indian fast food that included a CD with the traditional music.  Some enterprising Sino company in Bangalore had the intelligence to ask the question “how do we create an experience with our product thus adding value and differentiating ourselves from our competition?  I would bet there is a lot of competition in the Indian food space.  Here are some ideas for Real Estate developers

  • Bicycle, ride and car sharing programs for urban condo developments
  • Community garden or green house on the roof of common area buildings or club house
  • Strata owned guest suites for resident guest use at a nominal fee
  • Electric vehicle plug ins and preferred parking
  • “Age in place” services such as meal preparation and home visits for seniors
  • Group buy Green Grocer package

The new reality is that consumers are looking for more value for their money and meaningful experiences beyond bricks and mortar.  Can the development community rise to the occasion?

I welcome your comments and feedback

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