Launching a green business venture is incredibly daunting. If you’re a new green start-up you’re probably facing the following challenges:

1. Finding your niche in the world of green business.
2. Getting funded and/or finding investors.
3. Competing with the information overload your prospects experience every day.

I have coached green start-up entrepreneurs all over North America over the past several years.  My clients have launched green businesses in green real estate investing, eco-consulting, green retail stores, online eco-products, sustainable non-profit pre-schools, etc. They come from all walks of life, from the northern parts of Canada to south Florida.

Many have experienced incredible successes through hard work, perseverance and a keen business mind.  Although they are all very different people they do share some common traits.
These traits are the traits I believe you MUST have/show/exhibit if you want to launch a successful green start-up.  They are:

1. Self-awareness
2. Forward thinking
3. Focus
4. Passion

Self-awareness
The best clients are brutally self-aware.  They know exactly what they are good at and where they are weakest.  They spend their time working in areas that they are the strongest and delegate everything else.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses intimately will go a long way to ensuring your success.

Forward Thinking
Lead, don’t follow.  Don’t seek focus groups or follow common thought.  Go where your passion intersects with the greatest need in your world.  Whenever possible be ahead of the pack. This may be the biggest key to running a successful sustainability business.

I’ve been lucky to be in this position throughout my ‘green’ career.  I was doing home energy energy audits 5 years ago before anyone knew what they were.  I assumed that whether people wanted to save the planet or not, they definitely would want to save money on utility bills and live in a healthier environment.  That’s considered the norm now.

Focus
What are the top 3-5 things you need to do today to move your business forward?  If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’d better figure it out.  My best clients are great at knowing the things they must absolutely do each day to make sure their green start-up is successful.

Personally, I call these ‘Top Rocks’ (a la Stephen Covey).  I know if I get these done then no matter what else happens I can count the day as a success.  The beauty of this is that it forces you to think strategically every day.  Too often we get caught up in the slog of daily emails, personal errands, family responsibilities, etc.  I have a wife, 2 daughters, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 1 guinea pig so I know the danger of this all too well.  Stay focused and get your top 3-5 things done every day.

Passion
Intuitively this one seems easy- you must be passionate to be successful. You need passion not just to launch your business but to sustain it during tough times.  Hey, it’s easy to be passionate when you have tons of cash in the bank and everyone loves you.

Passion will help you when you lose a big deal (it happens) or when your bank balance can’t buy you a latte.  Successful green businesses are built through determination, grit and perseverance and these all have passion as their fuel.

I sincerely wish you the best luck with your green start-up.  Please contact me if I can help you in anyway.

[Many thanks to Melissa, Chris, Riva and Andrew, Mitch, Ryan and Shan, Al and Dan, and Iris.  You represent some of the best people I’ve had the honor to coach.  Your passion and success inspire me, thanks for all that you do.]

For the sake of philosophical discussion, let’s assume you:

1. Are genuinely interested in investing in some sort of ‘green’ investment.
2. Have about $50k languishing in your IRA/401(k).
3. Green tech (solar/wind/electric cars) seems too risky.
4. You’d be happy with a 10-15% annualized return on your money.
5. You have absolutely no time to research sustainable investing trends.
6. You do believe in a more sustainable world although you’re not moving into a yurt anytime soon.

Those conditions set, your choices could be:

1. Buy stock in a ‘green’ company.
2. Invest in a small wind power start-up.
3. Invest in a sustainable real estate project.
4. Go to Vegas and bet it all on black.

4 is riskier than 1 (but not by much) and 1 is safer than 2 but riskier than 3 which is safer than 4. Confused?  The short and simple answer is to invest in a sustainable real estate project.

A sustainable real estate project is one of the best (and safest) green investments you can make.  There are several reasons why, including:

1. Most people understand real estate. My advice (after a long career of owning/selling/brokering multi-millions of dollars of real estate) can be summed up in 7 words: Buy low, sell high, location, location, location.  Enough said.
2. Green properties appraise for more money. Here’s how and why.
3. Green properties cost less to remodel/build due to an plethora of rebates/incentives available.
4. Green properties sell faster and for more money.  They do so because people buying green homes get:
   1. Lower utility bills.
   2. Safer, less toxic (re: healthier) living environments.
   3. Increased pride of ownership since they own a high-performance ‘green’ home.

So if you have $50k (or more) languishing in an IRA or 401(k) you should consider putting those funds to work in a few green properties.  There are real estate builders/re-modelers all over the US who build/greenhab green homes.  Do a little research and you’ll probably find that there are projects going on in your area right now.  Good luck!

Green Real Estate Investing Speech by Jim Simcoe from Jim Simcoe on Vimeo.

Advantages include:

• Tremendous public support.
• Little, if any, competition.
• Fantastic demand from consumers and businesses alike.

When I launched my first green business in 2006 it was virtually impossible to generate  business.  There was very little interest in the marketplace and almost no data to support any benefits I spoke about.  What a difference a few years make.
Now our business is thriving and my team and I consult with companies large and small throughout North America.  Some of the industries we’ve done work in include:

• Real Estate
• Non-Profits
• Education
• Solar
• Property Management
• Green Info Products
• Green Business Launches
• Commercial building management

In launching our business I’ve made just about every mistake you can imagine.  Some of my all-time greatest include:

• Paying for advertising in a guide that yielded exactly one client.  It did however, allow me to be cold-called by other service providers incessantly for over a year.
• Giving a speech to a business group in Los Angeles that had no ability to buy from me.  I spent a total of 6 hours driving to/from LA for a complete waste of time.  To date, this remains one of the only speeches I’ve ever given where I did not gain business.
• Taking on a client that I knew was not a good fit for our company.  Although the project ended successfully the amount of time and effort we put into it negated all of the profits we earned.
• Striving for Perfection, not Success.  More on this one later as it’s a biggie…

Suffice to say you can learn a ton from my mistakes.  Two of the biggest keys is learning not to waste time or money.

GREEN TRADE SECRETS
I don’t believe that business is a zero sum game.  For me to ‘win’ you do not have to ‘lose’.  We can both win, both prosper and both run thriving businesses.  If I didn’t believe that I would never release all of my trade secrets to you in this paper.
My selfish reasons for telling you all that I know:

• I want your green business to thrive.  If your business thrives then we create more positive examples for other start-up green businesses to thrive.
• I believe in helping others.  Plenty of people helped me when I was first starting out so I am glad to return the favor.
• I don’t believe in competition as there is plenty of business for all of us.
• I want to be a good example for my young daughters.  This is one of the ways for me to do it.

Everything in this paper, all of the advice, recommendations, etc. comes from my direct experience.  None of this is theory. I built our business on effort, trial and error and constant learning.  I’m still learning today.

GREEN RIGHT NOW

Many doors, few signs
The world of green business is a funny place:

• Consumers want ‘green’ although they can’t really define what it is or why they want it.
• Green companies use ‘guilt-selling’ to move products.

Neither creates a sustainable long-term future for anyone.  There are tons of green options (doors) in the marketplace with few reasons (signs) as to why you should choose them.
Everywhere you look there is a new company purporting to be ‘green’ and having a commitment to sustainability.  They blather on about their technological advances and competitive advantages without doing the single one thing that most consumers want.

They never tell you their “why”.
They never tell you why they are in business or why you should care.  For a simple example, look at Apple computers.  They very rarely talk about the tech aspects of their stuff, they talk more about why you should choose them and why your life will be better if you do.  Both are very compelling perspectives that we’ll get into later in the marketing section.
Pitching pineapples to hawaiians:
Another common green business trend is to sell ‘green’ to those who already get it and are already invested in it.  The logic being that if they believe in it then they’re more apt to buy from you.  Unfortunately this is flawed logic.
Why?
The problem with this thinking is that maybe 5% of the total population either truly understands green or is behind it completely.  And if you tailor your efforts to this group you lose because:
They already get it and may already have your product/service.
You miss out on the ‘other’ 95%.

Put simply, don’t sell pineapples to hawaiians. They already have them.

BEST NEW GREEN MARKETS

If you are passionate about green but have no clue what market or industry to enter, this section is for you.  Put simply, there is more to green business than selling solar.  There are industries to avoid (wind) unless you have at least $1M to invest and an engineering degree from Stanford.  Below are the three strongest markets for the next decade.

Real Estate:
This market includes Realtors, Property Managers, Investors, Apartment Owners, REITS,  and Commercial building owners.  All tend to deal with existing properties and have a lot to gain from leveraging your expertise as a consultant or green service provider.
The opportunity in this group is astounding.  Less than 5% of homes or buildings in the US have any green features yet most people want those features.  Huge opportunity here for you.

Home Owners:
The two biggest areas for the home-owner market segment are performing energy efficiency audits and holding educational seminars.  Both are relatively simple sales processes and don’t require a lot of equipment or years of education to start your business.
Additionally, home-owners make great clients because they often refer their friends/colleagues if they’re happy about what you do.
Finally, home-owners are easy to find and reach.  There isn’t usually a complex decision making process they have to go through to decide whether to use your services or not.

Green Products:
In 10 years every product you see on the shelf at any store will have a ‘green’ alternative.  Toothbrushes will be compostable. Basketballs will be made from biodegradable materials. Literally almost everything will be made from ‘green’ materials or have a green component to it.
That said, the opportunity in this market is to either develop a green product or sell an existing one. If you choose to sell an existing one, pick something that you can sell to a huge market.  Here’s a great example: Solatubes.
Solatubes makes easy to install energy-efficient skylights.  These skylights cut electricity bills by bringing natural daylight into any home or office.  They can be used in retail, homes, commercial, virtually any industry in any part of the world.  Being a distributor for Solatubes would be a great green business to run

NATURAL SELECTION

Darwin had it right:
The concept of natural selection isn’t just for the animal kingdom. Only the strongest green brands will survive.  To truly be a player in the new green business frontier it’s crucial that you learn and accept this. Right now, there a lot of ‘green’ companies that are enjoying short-term success because green is so popular NOT because they are good companies.
(Think Pets.com circa 1996-bound to fail).
Be wary of becoming one of these companies.  You should launch your company with the long-term in mind.
In fact,  if you don’t realistically believe you can grow to be either #1 or #2 in your industry category then you should n’t launch there.  My business is a perfect example of this. There are very few speakers, besides me, who travel the US and talk about the business of green real estate.  I can dominate this market because there wasn’t an 800 pound gorilla here when I started. Conversely would you ever seriously consider starting a sneaker company?  Way too many gorillas and not enough of a chance of being #1 or #2.

If you can’t dominate, don’t play.

THRIVING GREEN IN BLUE OCEANS

“Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne might be one of the best business books I’ve ever read.  i recommend it highly.  The key premise of the book is:
“You can create high growth and profits by creating new demand in an uncontested market (blue ocean) rather than competing in a crowded market in an existing industry”
This is the cornerstone strategy to build your business. Pick your product or service and determine which industry would have huge demand and zero, if any competition for you.  Going back to our Solatubes example, lets consider where Solatubes are sold most frequently and to whom.
Largely they are sold in one or two units to homeowners at home shows, big-box retail chains, etc.  Assuming this is a business you wanted to enter, I’d suggest you sell to universities and other business that have large campus properties.
The reasons are simple:

• You’ll sell more units since their properties are larger.
• There are fewer people selling to this market.

Compared to home-owners they have other reasons why they may buy Solatubes (good branding/PR, more comfort = increased productivity, makes them look cutting edge, have budgets or incentive $ to spend on energy efficiency, etc.)

You’ll be sailing along in a blue ocean of opportunity while your competitors languish in an overcrowded marketplace.
Seek out blue oceans whenever possible.  They can make or break your entire business.

GREEN CEO MINDSET

Creating a thriving green business is no different from creating a thriving business. The traits that made Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey tremendous leaders can directly be applied to your green business. I would argue that all great leaders have three fundamental traits in common (that you must have as well) that made them great.  They are:

• Know their ‘WHY’.  You must have a very clear picture of why you are in business and why people should care.
• Track record of ‘passion’ wins. It’s crucial that you have a history of success in areas you are passionate about.
• Unleash your strengths on the world.

Why O, why?
If you know your “why” and are very clear about communicating it customers will be drawn to your company. People want to buy from people who believe in what they’re doing. I buy Mac computers because I believe in Steve Jobs vision of ‘cool products to make life better”.  That’s Apple’s ‘why’ and I dig it.  That’s why i don’t care about paying more for their products.  I know I am getting their best and their vision is aligned with mine.  That beats a 10% off sale at Best Buy any day.

Passion Propels
The concept of passion wins really has nothing to do with business strategy.  What it has to do with is exhibiting your level of passion when things are tough. Will you push through on something when it seems unbearable just because you’re passionate about it?  If so, you’ll be successful.

Here’s a very personal example (first cue the melodramatic music):
When I was 16 (1986) I played on my high-school lacrosse team. I lived and breathed lacrosse.  I hurt my back badly and needed to have spine/back surgery which back in those days was not a small issue.  After surgery my doctor told me I wouldn’t play lacrosse again and I may never walk normal again. I was pretty crushed.
After I got over feeling sorry for myself I committed to my rehab program.  I was supposed to do an hour or rehab a day and I did at least three.  I used to make my grandmother (God bless her) take me to the YMCA in the middle of winter in Massachusetts so I could swim laps.
After several months and with the lacrosse season approaching fast I had another meeting with my doctor.  He said he couldn’t believe my recovery and said I could play lacrosse. Outside of getting married and the birth of my kids that was one of the best days of my life.
A history of passionate wins will sustain you in your business if you believe in what you are doing.
Unleash the Beast
Your chances of success dramatically increase when you focus on your strengths. Forget that nonsense of improving your weaknesses-that will never lead to long term growth.  Look, if I am horrible at accounting, I should hire an accountant, I shouldn’t try to get better at it.
The most successful people in the world focus on what they do best and delegate the rest. In your business you should figure out your greatest strengths and work backwards from there.  The single biggest question I get from coaching clients is “How do I know what my strengths are?”
Here’s a few questions to steer you down the right path:

• What are you awesome at and feel most comfortable doing?
• What could you do with little preparation?
• What do people complement you on most?
• What do you absolutely love doing?

From my own life, my answers to all four questions are the same:
Giving speeches and coaching people.
I love speaking in front of huge groups, and I love coaching people to new heights in their lives. I’ve given impromptu speeches with no preparation and am lucky enough to have gotten rave reviews on my coaching and speeches.  Knowing that I spend as much of my time giving speeches and coaching*
*As an aside I am absolutely horrible at web design.  Thus I never do it and always hire an expert for me when I need it done. If I built a website I think I might crash the entire Internet.

MASTER THE MARKET

Expertise trumps experience
To truly dominate your chosen market you need to do three things:

• Seek success, not perfection
• Answer the tough questions
• Connect emotionally, justify logically

If you master just these three elements you will master and own your market.  Couple these tenets with the next section on marketing and you don’t need 10 years of experience to be successful.  Remember that Facebook and Google were both started by college kids with no business experience.
40/70 Rule
Colin Powell had a rule of thumb that said that he would act on a decision once he had enough information to have a 40-70% chance of success. He wouldn’t wait until he was 100% because that would often be too late.  You would do well to follow in his footsteps on this.
When launching your business strive for success, not perfection. Of course you want a ‘perfect’ website.  Better to launch a good version now to get your name out there.  Strive for success and let go of being perfect.  Who wants to be perfect, anyway?  Boring..
Question your customer
Rather than selling a product or solution, sell a state of mind. Sell an emotional state to your target customers.  To do this you must first be willing answer the toughest questions about your target  customers.  You must get to the heart of what drives them, what inspires them and why you align with their vision.
Here are the questions to ask:

• Who does your customer want to BE?
• What does your customer want to FEEL?
• Why will they thrive with YOU?

Let’s take an example of two energy auditors selling to homeowners.  One sells on price and features and one is YOU.

Price and features guy: “Mrs. Customer, for $495 I come to your house and take various readings on your current energy efficiency and current toxin levels and give you a 30 page report with my recommendations”

You: “Mrs Customer, I make sure you and your family live in the safest possible environment and spend as little as possible on utility bills. You’ll enjoy peace of mind knowing that your home is healthier than any others in this neighborhood. Put simply, you and your family will thrive in this home when I’m done with it”
So, who do you think gets hired more often and who’s business thrives over the long-term?  Get in your customer’s head and ask the tough questions.  What do they really care about most?  Find out and use that as your starting point.

4 RULES OF MARKETING

More business books have been written about marketing than almost anything else.  When launching a green business you can easily fall into that trap and spend the next 5 years reading marketing books.  We’re going to skip all of those steps andI’m just going to give you the answers to the test.  Remember, in launching green businesses all over North America these four rules are what I’ve seen to consistently work over and over again.
Rule # 1- No Advertising
Advertising is arguably the biggest waste of time for any green business.  It will waste your time and suck the money and life out of you. Why?
One simple reason: Zero barrier to entry.  If want to advertise myself as an expert dentist in the New York area I can put an ad in the New York Times and thats it.  Never mind that I’m not a dentist. Placing ads is easy and does nothing to qualify me as a dentist.
There is absolutely nothing in advertising that qualifies you as an expert and someone your prospects should contact.
Advertising is a great way of shouting to the world, “I’m great! Call me, because, you know, I’m really great!”
Better to have people shouting your accolades for you. Leading to..

Rule # 2- Heavy PR
A smart public relations strategy is a goldmine for any newbie green entrepreneur.  Being featured as an expert by someone else is always good.  It invariably leads to increasing your brand and your standing in the marketplace.

True story:
When I first started eco-consulting, I got a call from a local reporter who wanted to feature me on a local station.  We shot a feature and it appeared on a local Sunday night news program.  A producer from Fox TV was watching and he called me the next day to shoot a similar feature. I shot that feature which led to another feature on NBC.  Ive booked numerous speeches and other business largely from those TV news spots. I was perceived as the ‘expert’ even though I hadn’t been in business for very long.
That is the power of good PR. The more you are seen as the expert, the more people will approach you for business.  An ancillary benefit of being approached for business is that you can largely set the fee you want.  There’s very little haggling because, after all, you are the expert.
So don’t be an advertiser, be the expert.

Rule #3- Speak/Write AMAP/ASAP
Hand in hand with a strong PR plan is to spend as much time writing or speaking to your target audience. Key to this is AMAP/ASAP which means:

As Much As Possible/As Soon As Possible

Don’t wait until you are perfectly ready, start speaking and writing right now.  You have an opinion, you have a perspective and chances are people are probably interested in it.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a content calendar for both writing and speaking.  For example:

• Monday- Write 1 website post, contact 3 local groups for speaking engagements.
• Tuesday- Write 1 blog post, contact 3 national associations for speaking engagements.
• Wednesday- Plan an event to host for target clients.
• Thursday- Write 1 white paper and contact 5 business associations (Rotary, etc) for speaking engagements.
• Friday- Contact 5 local universities about being a guest speaker in their adult education classes.

Rule #4- Rule the Web
Most marketers or web experts will say that traffic trumps everything.  They tout SEO tactics and promise to get you on the first page of Google.  Unfortunately thats not really what you need to ensure your business will thrive online.  What you need is targeted traffic that converts to closed deals.

• Traffic = good.
• Targeted traffic = great.
• Closed leads from site = Essential.

At the end of the day your website does you no good if you don’t convert leads from it into closed deals.  Focusing only on traffic can really hurt your business long-term.
Lets discuss the two main functions your site must perform for your business. And yes, there really are only two to focus on.  They are:

• Provide value.
• Provide credibility.

Every page of your site should either provide valuable information to your target clients or establish you as the expert in your chosen field. Both functions bring you closer to your prospects and lead them to choosing you.
Give info and value away freely.  That may seem counter-intuitive but in reality it can be the best thing for your business.  Why? Because people will subconsciously think, “Wow, if she’s giving this info away for free, I can’t imagine how much she could help me if I were to hire her”.

Establish your credibility with testimonials, speech transcripts, videos of you on the news, etc.  Demonstrate that you are a ‘results leader’ in your market.Master these two site functions and you master the web.

READY, SET, LAUNCH

The best time to launch your green business is a year ago.  The second best time to launch it is today. The third best is tomorrow.  Hopefully you get the idea that getting to market in a working fashion now is better than launching 3 months from now perfectly.
Remember, we’re looking for success, not perfection.

Launch accelerators
There are a few things you can do to accelerate your launch.  Here’s a partial list:

• Target five high visibility prospects and offer them your services in exchange for a testimonial.  That gives you project experience as well as a recognized customer base to leverage.
• Determine what events your target clients attend and attend them as well.  Schedule meetings with them at the events if possible.
• Contact every website editor, podcast creator, news reporter, radio host, etc. that your potential clients may listen/watch or read.  Offer to do guest posts, interviews, etc.  Most of these resources are starving for content so you’re actually doing them a favor.
• Work your network.  Call (no email, no facebook messaging) people in your network who may have contacts who can help you. State clearly that you need a favor and don’t beat around the bush.
• Engage in social media to research potential clients and/or potential speaking/writing engagements.
• Create 30 day goals and manage to them weekly.
• Hire a coach or accountability partner.

YOU are who we are waiting for
Launching a green business isn’t easy.  You need to combine hard work, passion and intelligence to really be successful. A little luck doesn’t hurt either.  The question really isn’t whether it’s easy or not.  The question is, “How valuable is you business to our world?” Are you reducing the impact on the planet and making people’s lives easier/healthier?  If so, then it’s a worthy pursuit even if it’s not easy.

People all over the world need us to launch and run successful green businesses.  We all deserve to live/work in healthier environments with better products and more opportunity.  If you’re reading this you’re on the forefront of that opportunity good for you.

Now it’s time to leverage that opportunity and launch.  Five years from now you’ll be glad you did.  I know I am.
I hope this manifesto has been helpful.  Please feel free to contact me directly with questions at Jim@JimSimcoe.com.

Building a green real estate investing dynasty

1. We buy properties below market, green them and receive rebates, grants and incentives to offset rehab expenses.
2. Investors earn increased profits and increased cash flow.
3. We target a non-profit and they receive a quarterly payment based on our quarterly profits.  This is one way we’re able to give back to the community.
4. We follow the mantra, “Do Good, Make Money”

Inspired Ventures Plan

Below is a case we recently completed on a project I did a few years ago. This multi-family project is a 256 unit apartment complex in Santee, Ca. The results were based on the clients actual bills/usage and are projected out 10 years to see the true benefit to both the investor/owner and the residents of the complex. By pursing a socially responsible investment strategy on this property, the owner was able to improve profits while saving water/energy AND improves the lives of 256 families. Not bad…

Green Multi Family Case Study

Text Version:

Executive Summary
In 2009 our firm, Simcoe Consulting was commissioned to do a comprehensive energy and water consumption assessment of a 256 unit apartment complex (Santee Villas) in Santee, California. Costs for both energy use and water consumption on the property were continuing to increase year over year.

In addition, the County of San Diego had just raised the drought warning to a Level Two for San Diego. The local water provider, Padre Dam Water District, had steadily raised water and sewer rates over the past several years. The owners of Santee Villas (R&V)were concerned that increasing rates coupled potential fines and levies for excess water use would threaten their already slim profit margins.

We were tasked with answering the following :
1. How could we maximize the energy-efficiency of the property? 2. What would a green retrofit cost and what was the ROI for the retrofit? 3. What rebate funds were available to offset the cost of the project?
Once the assessment was completed and the strategy finalized, we handled the project management of Phase I of the retrofit. The entire project, from audit to strategy, to final completion took approximately 75 days.

Site Specifics
Santee Villas is a 256 unit multifamily development in San Diego County, California. Santee Villas is owned by a private real estate company (R&V) based in San Diego. The company owns 35+ large multi-family properties in Southern California. Santee Villas is comprised of 16 buildings built in 1984 and sits on approximately 18 acres.

The city of Santee is northeast of the city of San Diego. Santee has a temperate climate although summer day temperatures often exceed 100 degrees. Santee Villas is spread out over [how many] buildings. As with typical apartment complexes there are areas that get a great deal of sun and some areas that get very little.  All of the buildings are two story wood and stucco construction. All of the Santee Villas systems (plumbing, irrigation, electrical, HVAC) were installed during the original construction. No major retrofits or upgrades had been completed since that time.

Initial Audit
In Phase I we audited all of the exterior water systems (irrigation, pool, etc.). Our goal was to find areas of the property that could be retrofitted without needing a complete redesign. We recognized that a complete redesign would both be expensive and negate any potential cost savings. We performed the audit in three steps.

Our first step was to map out the location of every building, water pipe, control valve, and sprinkler-head, breakers, etc. We mapped out each irrigation zone and noted the make and model of every item (sprinkler-heads, valves, etc) for future reference. We also mapped out the type of vegetation (trees, bushes, grass, flowers, etc.) and their locations. All told there were over 3000 sprinkler-heads located on the property.

The second step consisted of observing the irrigation system in action. We took several hundred photos and filmed each zone as it was being irrigated. We noted the following:
• Areas of overspray on buildings.

• Areas of overspray on tenants cars.

• Areas of overspray on sidewalks.

• Areas being irrigated where there was no need for irrigation.

• Areas of vegetation that were not getting irrigated.

• Areas of vegetation that were being irrigated but did not need it.
Of particular importance for us were areas where overspray was doing damage to the foundation of a building. These could be huge problems in the future so we made this a top priority.

Phase I Strategy
After the initial audit, we developed a strategy to maximize the effectiveness of the green retrofit plan. The core components of our strategy were:
1. Eliminate all problem areas.

2. Optimize all systems for maximum efficiency

3. Automize operations as much as possible.

4. Train all staff, vendors, suppliers.
Eliminate problem areas
We defined a potential problem area as one currently causing significant damage to a building or major area of the site. Left untethered these could potentially cause thousands of dollars in damage. For example, any area where irrigation was either spraying directly on a building foundation or unit decking. In these areas we either re-directed the sprinkler-head or capped them off so they would cease to do damage. All told, there were roughly 100 problem areas on site that we mitigated through sprinkler-head capping or re-directing irrigation.
Sprinkler-head causing structural damage to the foundation of a building.

Optimizing Systems
The current systems on site were old and not suited for the layout of the property. We worked within the confines of the current irrigation map as replacing the entire irrigation system wasn’t feasible from a cost standpoint. We choose Hunter MP Rotators as the main sprinkler-head for the site. Hunter was our manufacturer of choice for several reasons. After touring their facility in San Marcos, Ca we were impressed by their patented technology, durability and water efficiency of their product. Unlike most sprinkler-heads that shoot water out in an undefined splash pattern, MP Rotators shoot water in a defined arc that can be adjusted. The result is that you have less overspray, and can use less water to irrigate the same area. Once we determined our irrigation equipment we thensought to re-map the property to minimize the total number of valves and sprinkler-heads needed. Wecapped off sprinkler-heads that were either watering mature (tress and bushes) vegetation or nothing at all. When completed we capped off approximately 20% of the sprinkler-heads onsite.

Automize Systems
Whenever possible we choose to minimize potential human error in the operations of a client’s project through automation. The less interaction a staff member has with the system the better.
With that in mind we choose to add eight weather sensors throughout the property. These sensors were connected to new automatic timers that were pre- programmed for optimal irrigation. Weather sensors measure the moisture levels in the air and in the ground. When the moisture level exceeds the recommended levels, the sensor overrides the system and the irrigation stays off. This eliminates situations where the irrigation goes off even while it is raining.

Both the weather sensors and timers were strategically placed in locations where they could not be tampered with or adjusted without the landscape manager’s assistance. Usually this meant mounting them on top of the buildings themselves. We’ve observed many other projects where weather sensors and timers are adjusted freely by anyone on site. This is almost always a mistake. For example, when using MP Rotators the irrigation time is cut 50%. Many landscapers (used to a 7-9 minute watering times) will increase sprinkler times on MP systems because they are not familiar with the MP system. That leads to higher water expenses and flooding.
We were also able to get rebate funds covering 85% of the total cost of the materials for the sprinkler-heads, valves, weather sensors and automatic timers.

Training
To realize the full benefit of the entire project we realized we had to gain buy in from everyone involved. Without that the project would fail because the day-to-day operational strategies we enacted would not be carried out.
We met with the corporate staff, onsite leasing managers, maintenance crew and the contracted landscaping company. In each meeting/training session we explained the following:
1. The overall goals of our strategy (Save water/power; reduce expenses and improve performance) 2. How their specific area would be affected. 3. The procedures we recommended they follow.
4. The direct benefits to them for implementing our recommendations.
The training largely produced the anticipated results. The team was interested and excited about becoming a ‘green’ property. They took ownership of the work and did what we asked. We explained to each group exactly what they needed to know and no more. Tying the results of the property to their direct benefit was instrumental in gaining their buy in.

We did encounter challenges with one group. That group was the contracted landscape company. A lot of the work (and problem areas) we recommended were in the landscapers direct scope of work. They alternately seemed defensive and threatened by our presence and our recommendations. They were not easy to work with and In retrospect we should have dealt with this group differently.
All in all, the training was successful because we approached the different groups through a consultative, questioning method, rather than an authoritative, domineering approach. In short, they were able to see the value of the project and the value to them personally for doing what we recommended.

Phase II Strategy
The second phase of the project is to reduce the water use and utility use within the 256 living units and further the conservation of the exterior water use and utility use. We project that we’ll reduce each units water use by a minimum of 35% and the electricity use by 30%. The recommendations are as follows:
Water Conservation
1. Install low-flow toilets in every unit. With materials and labor per toilet under $200 there is a tremendous savings to be had be completing this retrofit.
2. Replace and install low-flow shower-heads in all units and installing Energy Star dishwashers (approx. $300 each) in all units as well. Materials and labor under $40 per unit.
3. Install sink aerators in all faucets in all units. Materials and labor under $20 per unit.
4. Install building-by-building grey water system when building plumbing system needs complete retrofit.
5. Install rainwater harvesting system to offset the water needs of the irrigation system. With roughly 144,000 square feet of roof space, approximately 90,000 gallons of water could be captured and used for the irrigation system.

Utility Conservation
1. Install wall insulation in all exterior walls of each building. Closed cell foam insulation can be injected though the exterior of the building thus not disturbing the tenants. This can cut gas bills 50% for each resident.
2. When replacing appliances, install Energy Star rate appliances whenever possible. Apply for all applicable rebates and incentives to offset material cost.
3. Replace all T-12 fluorescent tube kitchen and bath lighting with T-5 fluorescent tube lighting. T-5’s fit into existing T-12 ballasts so the cost is minimal while the long term savings is great.