Earth Day is right around the corner! In honor of our commitment to sustainability, we asked Todd Shipman and Cotty Lowry, some of MAR’s leaders of our Environmental Initiatives Committee some questions around Realtors® responsibility to the environment and advancing green practices:

What’s the importance of agents prioritizing sustainability and adopting a more green lens in their work?

Todd Shipman, Chair of MAR’s Environmental Initiatives Committee

Realtors® have a fiduciary duty to the client to help them identify green features and how to best manage the total cost of ownership. Second, we need to help our clients improve the comfort and value of their properties. Lastly we have to stabilize the integrity of the housing stock.

Cotty Lowry, Vice Chair of MAR’s Environmental Initiatives Committee

Having a green lens and being intentional about knowing some of these advances and being a resource to clients, allows Realtors the opportunity to expand our business, have greater success, and get personal satisfaction in areas not previously available.

A green lens gives us information we can pass on to our clients to help them:

• Make their home more comfortable
• Create healthier homes with better air quality
• Save money on utility costs
• Add value to their home at the time of resale
• Feel good about their personal commitment to reducing carbon footprint.

What are the top 3 things you’d recommend buyers and sellers invest in?

Todd: 

• Home technology – internet thermostat, energy star appliances. 
• Repair or replace any broken seals in thermopane windows
• New HVAC Systems.  

Cotty:

• Create a baseline by getting an energy audit as soon as possible after moving in.   This gives you the information you need to create a plan for your home’s Energy Ecosystem.    
• Weather stripping doors and windows 
• Insulation – an energy audit done in cold weather will show an exterior scan of where the hot spots are leaking heat through walls and windows.

While Earth Day is a reason to give pause and take action on ways we can protect the environment, the question of “what will you do to advance sustainability for clients?” is one Realtors® can ask every day.