According to Pew research, nearly
two thirds of Americans say that protecting the environment for future generations is “very important”. It’s clear a majority of Americans believe climate change should be a top priority. Nearly 40% of the planet’s carbon footprint is caused by housing and commercial buildings. These facts require the real estate industry to find tangible ways to support a sustainable future.
Clean energy and other “green” practices, such as recycling programs and urban agriculture, help create jobs and benefit both the environment and public health, all of which contribute to America’s bottom line. Recognizing these advantages, cities across the U.S. have increased their sustainability efforts and in turn, benefited economically.
To determine the cities promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle, WalletHub—a credit score improvement and AI-based credit counseling site—compared the 100 largest cities across 28 key “green” indicators against four key dimensions, 1) Environment, 2) Transportation, 3) Energy Sources and 4) Lifestyle & Policy. Their research resulted in this list of the nation’s
100 greenest cities in America.
According to the study San Diego, California is the greenest city, and Gilbert, Arizona is the 100
th least green city in America. If your MLS services one of the top 100 greenest cities in America, it is critical that your organization provides this powerful marketing data to your subscribers.
State and local associations can work on legislative policy that can support investment in making communities greener and support greater transparency at the time of a real estate transaction. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, homeowner’s will be even more focused on energy efficiency attributes or upgrade pathways for a home.
As a Multiple Listing Service, there is an opportunity to promote homes that have invested in green home certifications, and reductions to the home’s carbon footprint with energy efficiency improvements. Integrating the data provided by the Green Building Registry into the tools the MLS uses is an easy, cost-effective pathway to providing this important information to homebuyers.
Why should an MLS consider adding an additional data set offered by the Green Building Registry®? According to Eric Rehling, Broker/Owner, RE/MAX Ready in Conshohocken, PA;
“Why do Green Fields in our MLS matter? Because Consumers Matter! Whether the consumer is driven by cost savings or sustainability, they have overwhelmingly expressed to our industry their desire to know about these features before making a purchase decision. After all, does anyone buy a car without checking its MPG? The more information we provide to the MLS when listing a property, the more accurate the home performance data can be forecasted, which equals more confidence for our clients when purchasing the home."
Learn more about how you can support the sale of verified green and energy efficient homes in your market:
Click
here to learn more about the Green Building Registry or
watch a video overview of the Green Building Registry.
The Green Building Registry was developed and is wholly owned by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Earth Advantage.
