I'm Going Green!

my big new year's resolution. When I left Alaska for the Kennedy School in the mid-'80s, I intended to study environmental economics. After a year, I found myself drawn back to housing economics, resulting in a bit of a split personality. For instance, after four years of serving as Henry Cisneros's policy wonk at HUD and then managing the $35 billion rural housing mortgage portfolio in the Clinton Administration, I moved here and became ED of Redefining Progress (remember the Nobel Laureate Statement on Climate Change?).

So, these years of sending out postcards (albeit small-sized) and hard-copy newsletters (albeit non-glossy finish) have fed my Irish-Catholic guilt.

Here's my gameplan:

-Bought a new Prius to replace the Volvo as my work car. We realtors drive many miles, so this is a high-leverage move. (I'm keeping an eye out for a ''My other car is a Prius'' bumper sticker for the old green Prius.)

-No more hard-copy anything on a regular basis. I'm reminding my 500 neighborhood contacts who usually get a quarterly hard-copy newsletter that they can find my detailed market info (sale-by-sale data, not the market summary you see here) at my website, in the Library.

Click here to take a peek at the more detailed info that the hard-copy folks receive (look at the back pages of those old newsletters). In a few days my web guy (Bruce Linde, by the way) will have a chance to upload this quarter's update to the website. Or, email me and I'll shoot you the 4Q07 spreadsheet now.

All my short squibs will be available through this newsletter, as well as on my blog.

-I'm carbon neutral. See more about TheGreenOffice.Com here.

-The paper I do generate will be 100% post-consumer recycled paper whenever possible.

-I spent part of my Thanksgiving holiday earning my Eco-Broker's certification, so I can better advise clients on purchases, renovations and upgrades that are earth-friendly. Of particular interest, see this list of rebates and incentives available to Alameda County residents for all kinds of eco-friendly improvements, BuildItGreen.org and GreenPointRated.org.. In fact the Brookings Institution asked me to participate in a roundtable on market-grounded green-friendly affordable housing policy in late November.