‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: A Green Conversation Starter for the Leasing Office’

As you’ll hear again if you read my Editor’s Note in the November issue of MHN (click here to subscribe), I think the USGBC’s GreenBuild conference and expo is an important event to attend. Skip a year every so often, and take turns attending, because new technologies take a while to evolve. But multifamily companies of all sizes would do well to get there every couple of years to stay abreast of new trends before they hit the mainstream. Have the team member(s) who attend the show present their most compelling products and conference take-aways during an in-house lunch and learn.

As usual GreenBuild 2011, which was held in Toronto last week, featured an overwhelming number of green products (as well as products that want to be perceived as green by keeping company with green products) on the show floor. We’ll be publishing our observations and videos from the show floor soon (click here to read two special reports posted by MHN so far).

In the meantime, here’s a preview of a product that a clever leasing team could use as a conversation starter about their community’s commitment to green living.

You can tell prospects that your Heron LED task light is made by LittleFootprint Lighting, a California-based pioneer of sustainably designed LED task lighting products made in the USA from recycled materials, including plastic from e-waste. In fact, LittleFootprint Lighting is so green that it announced during GreenBuild its official designation as an “e-Stewards Enterprise.” LittleFootprint Lighting is the first e-Stewards Enterprise that actually makes products from recycled e-waste, “closing the loop” on plastics from e-waste.

“At this pivotal moment in the worldwide e-waste crisis, LittleFootprint Lighting joins a growing number of business, academic and governmental leaders taking action to stem a toxic tide,” said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, creator of the e-Stewards program.

E-waste is the fastest growing element of the U.S. garbage stream. According to a report in Time Magazine, Americans throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers every day. Improperly disposed-of lead, mercury and other toxic materials found inside e-waste can leak from landfills and pollute our communities.