Companies like TOTO, Pella Corporation, and InterfaceFLOR have practiced sustainability as a part of their everyday culture for quite some time. Our third set from the Greenbuild 2009 Industry Insider Series details ways that each company blends sustainability practices into their overall company culture.
It’s been a rough year for those involved in the housing market. Homes have been foreclosed, jobs lost and builders have gone bankrupt. But with Thanksgiving tomorrow and 2010 around the corner there is reason for optimism. Here is a short list of things those in the industry can be thankful for…
The Federal Government
At the top of the list, the government is trying desperately to bail out the industry and our country. Tax credits, the stimulus, you name it. President Obama and Congress are doing whatever it takes to get America out of the recession and stimulate the economy. However, they are treading carefully as there has been recent talk of a “double dip recession.” Of course, there are many who believe there’s more they could be doing or they simply don’t agree with the current actions in place.
Home Buyer Tax Credit
Courtesy of Uncle Sam, the home buyer tax credit was aimed to stimulate the market and entice consumers to purchase a home. Buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years are eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500, while first-time homebuyers would still get up to $8,000. Just this month, the tax credit was extended. Said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, “we commend lawmakers for acting in a bipartisan manner to extend the first-time home buyer tax credit and expand it to a wider group of home buyers. The tax credit has proven to be a powerful economic incentive. Today’s action by Congress will further stabilize housing and the economy by creating new jobs, stimulating home sales, reducing foreclosures, cutting excess inventories and stabilizing home prices.”
National Association of Home Builders
Wall Street
Wall Street has recovered far quicker than anyone has imagined. Just take a look at your 401K or other investments you may have. Just this week, stocks “posted fresh 2009 highs for a second day despite a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings view from Home Depot and weaker-than-expected US industrial production numbers,” said the National Business Review. According to the AP, “the modest drop came a day after major stock indicators closed at 13-month highs, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which has risen nine of the past 10 days.” Wall Street continues to make a nice rebound.
Green Building
Despite the constant abuse, green is now mainstream in the industry. We’re already redefining the definition of green building (see sustainable). This deserves its own post, but we can’t overlook the immediate impact green building has had, and will continue to, on the industry - new jobs and a healthier place to live and work, not too mention a boost to the bottom line, contributing $554 billion to the U.S. GDP, in the next four years.
Green Cities Media
Housing Inventory
A debatable topic, housing inventory nationwide continues to dwindle, which some see as a positive sign. According to the AP, “at September’s sales pace, it would take about 7.5 months to sell off all the new homes on the market. That’s down from a peak of 11 months last fall.” However, it’s still far from being a “healthy market.”
So as those in the industry surround themselves with family and friends this week, we hope they remain optimistic and realize there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a lot to thankful for.
Please note, the Build Intel Baltimore bureau is closed for the Holiday. That means that there won’t be any new posts until Monday. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and be kind to your belly.
Some people talk the talk while others walk the walk. Well Dan Zarrella walks and talks better than most when it comes to social media. He is an award-winning social, search, and viral marketing scientist and author of the upcoming O’Reilly media book “The Social Media Marketing Book”. You could say that we were thrilled by the opportunity to pick his brain, but that would be grossly understating it.
Like we were saying, Dan was kind enough to answer some questions for us…
Dan, your new book “The Social Media Marketing Book” is described as a resource for choosing the best of the social web’s unique marketing opportunities. What’s the most unique use of social media that you’ve seen to date?
Most unique use is an interesting and difficult question. Once an idea works well, others copy it. I love what Dell did with IdeaStorm, which Starbucks and others also eventually did. I love the now cliché ComcastCares Twitter account example as well. BlendTec’s “Will it Blend” campaign was awesome. And I hear that Victoria Secret’s Pink line has a great Facebook presence.
We work in a niche industry, albeit a large one (the built environment), primarily focused in B2B marketing, is social media for everyone?
It is. Not all social media is for everyone, but there is something from the social web that can be used for every kind of business. I’ve seen a ton of great examples of powerful b2b marketing with social media technologies as “far out there” as Second Life. IBM has done some great things with Ballet Pixelle there.
Reporting continues to be a hot topic. It’s safe to say that we’ve yet to find a service that can offer us everything we need. Do you have any recommendations on the best tools to track the performance of your campaign?
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention HubSpot’s software package. But in the end I think most flexible reporting systems can be customized to provide pretty good insights. Social media analytics is a tough problem, and that’s an opportunity too, if you’re having the problems, so are your competitors.
Previously you campaigned against Twitter’s Project ReTweet. Now that it’s officially available to all users, has your opinion changed at all?
It hasn’t and honestly my position has been strengthened because nearly all the post-launch feed back I’ve seen has been negative. When I first wrote the blog post about it, there were a few people saying good things like “let’s wait and see.” Lots of people did that and now formed the same opinions I had.
What would you do to improve it? We’re a bit disappointed that there’s still no synergy with different clients (although we expect it) and there’s no option to add your own commentary.
I would change the attribution system, to show the ReTweeter’s name and avatar. I would add the ability for a ReTweeter to add her own thoughts, and I would add a streaming ReTweet API so that researchers could get every ReTweet posted with the new method.
Being a “scientist”, we know you like to tinker with things. What trends are you currently examining?
Augmented reality. And not just in the sci-fi virtual reality way. The gap between online social media and the real world is closing fast. Driven by powerful mobile devices and hyper local platforms like Foursquare this is the space I really see taking off in the next year or so.
Okay, one final question. If you could predict the future, what’s the next big meme we should look out for?
As I mentioned above, the real world is going to become important again.
Buy a copy of Dan’s new book. You can also find him all over the Internet. Dan has written extensively about the science of viral marketing, memetics and social communications on his own blog and for a variety of popular industry blogs, including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagiarism Today, ProBlogger, Social Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, and SEOScoop. Follow him on Twitter.
Our second chapter of the Greenbuild 2009 Industry Insider Series offers the input of three industry leaders who speak to the big-picture, holistic approach to sustainability and sustainable design. Hear the perspectives of HOK, ARCAT and Green Street Development.
More homeowners fall behind on mortgages
Green Building reinforcements on their way
RSC Equipment Rental introduces emissions tracking service
What “Cash for Caulkers” could do for the economy
One of the world’s largest LEED projects nearing completion
Construction materials costs will post modest gains
Study proves green buildings produce higher productivity and reduce sick days
And finally, the world’s most indestructible sheet of paper:
Best Of What’s New 2009: Bombproof Wallpaper Test from PopSci.com on Vimeo.
Welcome to our Greenbuild 2009 Industry Insider Series. We interviewed a wide range of industry professionals at the Show to hear their thoughts on sustainability — where we are today and where we’re headed. To kick off our series we share with you three industry leaders who take sustainability so seriously they have committed to reaching audacious goals on a deadline.
See the impassioned pledges from Kohler, Bentley Prince Street and Somfy Systems.
Building products distribution, in general, appears to be in disarray as a result of the great recession. Distributors and dealers are closing their doors, or at least putting their businesses up for sale. As a result, the relationships with builders, remodelers, plumbers, electricians, roofers, insulation installers, and general contractors to building products manufacturers that rely on them to sell their goods is at risk. Fewer distributors and dealers leads to lost relationships with these key purchasers. Ouch… or maybe not.
Recent reports of conversations with professional building tradesman (AKA research) show they are active participants in today’s social network. This makes sense since they historically rely on references and referral for new products, services, and ideas. Here is the opportunity for the building products manufacturers to overcome the disarray of distribution and mitigate the risk of losing these important trade relationships through social networking.
Manufacturers enter conversations with professionals within the social networks they are using most to begin to build direct relationships. The questions that these professionals once asked their dealer can be answered in a forum. Code updates that affect both the professional and the manufacturer can be shared through Twitter. Special insights and promotions can be shared on a Facebook Page. The same type of things manufacturers and professionals rely on distributors and dealers for can be managed online with an open and/or a controlled network.
Now we know it is not as easy as creating a Facebook account or beginning to Tweet. Research on where these professionals are talking about specific products is required for success. Having the know-how and a plan to be welcomed into these communities are critical. Understanding the legal implications and responsibilities of participating in social networks as a commercial entity requires a commitment just like that of working with distribution. The difference is the direct relationship you can create with the people that often determine your success or failure in the market.
The current distribution model continues to play a vital role in getting the physical products into the field and multiplying the efforts of the corporate sales force in an efficient and effective manner. While distribution works through the impacts of the recession, building products manufacturers have a real opportunity to increase success through developing direct relationships with the professional trade in a low cost, highly effective way.
Shawn Draper is partner and senior vice president at IMRE. For more than 20 years Shawn has been guiding the marketing strategies for national home and building companies, including multi-year tenures, prior to IMRE, with Andersen Windows, Weather Shield Windows and Doors, and Woodcraft Supply.
Here at Build Intel we recognize the importance of cutting through the clutter. According to Technorati, there are more than 112 million blogs running rampant on the Internet. That statistic alone makes us want to thank you from the concrete foundation of our blog posts for visiting this site. We strive to deliver meaningful, succinct content on a regular basis and to do so, we rely on a few fellow blogs to do just that.
Here are our recommendations for some (11) of the best building-related blogs ready to RSS feed your daily intake of industry knowledge. Also, we’ve taken the liberty to identify those written by industry media (professional journalists) and those spawned from the passion of industry experts and/or those in the workforce (citizen journalists).
Tell us your favorite professional and citizen journalist bloggers to follow.
Professional Journalists:
Housingzone.com - The online home of Reed Business publications (Professional Builder, Housing Giants, etc.), Housingzone.com stores a variety of blogs written about specific categories to a wide audience.
eBuild Blog – The online outlet for Hanley Wood’s Building Products Magazine, the eBuild blog highlights hot industry news and the latest in new product developments.
WSJ Developments Blog – Developments features exclusive news, analysis and commentary on residential and commercial real estate. You can always find a good conversation going on among the blog’s hottest topics.
Residential Design & Build – Editors of this Cygnus Business Media publication deliver up-to-date information and encourage discussion among readers around important industry topics.
BuildingGreen.com LIVE – BuildingGreen.com editors provide real-time event coverage, reviews and unvarnished opinions on green building news.
Citizen Journalists:
Green Building & Environmental Trends – Richard Cartlidge, a graduate of Stetson University College of Law and a LEED AP, blogs about areas of real estate development, land use, and environmental law. If you like what you see, he provides comprehensive consulting services for those industry categories, too.
BUILDblog – With a focus on modern design from the Northwest corner of the U.S., this blog will definitely interest the designer and architect.
Construction Informer – Self-proclaimed as a place to find information and participate in free-spirited discussions about building, Construction Informer is chock full of news and views about the industry.
Toolsnob.com – Look no further for the latest new products put to the test and reviewed in a way that will answer your pending questions. Doug Mahoney aggregates everything for us nicely with his monthly roundups.
BLDGBLOG – Not to be confused with BUILDblog, writer Geoff Manaugh provides architectural news and conjecture, heavily illustrated.
Inhabitat – Self-described as, “a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.”
If you think you should be added to our blogroll or want to recommend a new blog, comment and let us know.
We’ve landed in Phoenix and are excited to announce the upcoming launch of our upcoming Greenbuild Industry Insider video series where we will interview some of the leading building product manufacturers on-site at Greenbuild and ask the question everyone wants an answer to: “What does sustainability mean to your company?”
Over the last year this seemingly simple question has become more and more complex as architects, designers, builders and manufacturers have become increasingly savvy and legitamately skepticle of anything green that passes their way.
Our series will launch next week following Greenbuild featuring industry leaders such as Kohler, Georgia Pacific and Owens Corning. Stay tuned - follow @GreenIntel for tips and thoughts from our “insiders” throughout the show.
