A recent blog post on the Wall Street Journal reports that, “A new tool is now available for investors looking to buy a so-called ‘green’ building, a property that has environmentally-friendly features like energy and water efficiency and that produces minimal pollution and waste. A new program instituted by the National Association of Realtors has begun certifying brokers as green specialists. Brokers can earn the designation from NAR’s Green Resource Council by taking three days of courses or completing the program online at their own pace.”

Green Resource Council’s website announces that the “NAR has taken a bold step in creating a true cross-over designation – one that provides an in-depth understanding of ‘what green means’ for every aspect of real estate: residential, commercial, and property management.”

Among the ways the Green Resource Council serves real estate professionals are:

• Enabling real estate professionals to incorporate green principles into their practice, and
• Encouraging the real estate professional to be an advocate in spreading the green philosophy and be a positive force for creating sustainable and energy efficient communities of homes and commercial buildings

With so much talk about “green” in today’s climate of growing environmental awareness and responsibility, resources such as the Green Resource Council offer reliable information and help to educate the professional real estate professional and the interested consumer as well.

Fascinating statistics about the growing value of green-enhanced homes include:

• Home buyers who ranked energy efficiency as “very important” purchased homes that had a median home price $12,400 higher than those who ranked it “somewhat” or “not important.”
  - Source: NAR’s 2007 Profiile of Buyers’ Home Features Preferences
• The building industry is indeed going green and … LEED-registered projects could soon account for almost 25% of all new construction in the U.S.
  - Source: Environmental Leader, May 2008

The Green Resource Council offers the only NAR-recognized course for real estate professionals who want to earn a specialty designation as an authority for green information in the real estate market, with an in-depth array of learning objectives. For more information, visit their website: GreenResourceCouncil.org.

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