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The Greenwash Brigade

Update: Shh – don’t tell anyone – these apartments are green!

Janne K. Flisrand Jul 11, 2008

About a week after this post, I received an e-mail from the marketing
firm working on Blue: We “immediately realized that you are right. The info on what makes Blue so green was definitely hidden on the site. We moved that up to the homepage for everyone to see.”

Excellent!

Their language on what makes Blue so green could use some more specifics and be more comprehensible to consumers. What does it mean to save 5,000 gallons of water per year? Is that a 1% improvement or a 30% improvement over what’s normal? They could also avoid stating the obvious (“higher levels of insulation”) and highlighting tiny things like “Locally Quarried Granite in some units.” But they’re trying and getting close.

The e-mail also included an invitation for coffee to “make sure we are speaking the right language.” And a tour of Blue.

We met, and I’m happy to report that while Blue isn’t perfect, they are doing a good job. They have an interesting underground parking construction method that they didn’t highlight on the info sheet and great stormwater management – again not on the sheet. They’re also doing education with prospective and new tenants.

I’d live there.

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