Reviewed by Patrick Buckley

Are the costs of being a green corporation affordable for a medium-sized firm? The papers assembled in The Green Building Bottom Line show that the adoption of an environmentally sustainable strategy is profitable for at least one corporation, Melaver, Inc. - a privately owned, real estate and property management firm, in Savannah, Georgia. Martin Melaver is CEO of the company and Phyllis Mueller is a local journalist who worked with him to edit this series of articles that explain how Melaver Inc. has succeeded as a green developer.

Melaver Inc. was a relatively early adopter of the principles of green building - they developed the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified shopping centre. The company has since provided test sites for other LEED standards.

Financial value
Each chapter of The Green Building Bottom Line is written by one or two individuals who are directly involved with a specific feature of this environmentally sensitive firm. There are chapters that examine core values, human resources, marketing, and legal issues related to green building practices.

The critical message that’s probably stressed most in the book is the financial value of going green. To emphasize the point, financial opportunities that come from being a green firm are assessed in the book through the accounts of a fictional firm that is about the same size as Melaver. According to the calculations, green building can, in fact, improve a company’s bottom line. Although no hard numbers are revealed, it is suggested that the fictitious company isn’t much different from the real Melaver Inc.

Core values
In the early 2000s Melaver Inc. spent considerable time and money to establish their core values. The leaders wanted "capitalism with a difference" so adopted the values of ethical behavior, learning, service, and profitability - in contrast to an emphasis on short-term gain or "indifferent capitalism." These core values evolved into a shared ethic of environmental sustainability through a process that was inclusive, encouraged story telling, multiple perspectives, and straight talk, and engaged top management. Today, the company walks and talks "green." It is environmentally sensitive from the inside out - no green washing here.

The division of Melaver Inc. that had the most difficulty becoming green was the real estate brokerage. The problems of the real estate brokers match an S-shaped innovation curve. In the early 2000s, the company was a lone innovator in green building in Savannah. The real estate brokers found that they could only do environmentally sustainable deals when working with innovators, the other divisions of Melaver.

The brokers sensed a change in their market a couple of years ago - the tipping point of adoption of environmental innovation. Melaver Inc. now has a green real estate brokerage that employs an environmental expert who is part of all their deals.

Leading change
The public image of Melaver Inc. followed a similar pattern of adoption of innovation. In the early 2000s, the company faithfully followed green standards, but did not make these values a critical part of their marketing, as they sensed few other innovators in their local market. Instead, they used their first LEED shopping centre in 2006 as a site for educating the public. Now that ecological values are more popular, Melaver Inc. is very visibly a leading company in green building and real estate. All of their projects now meet LEED standards.

Leaders of organizations that are trying to adapt their businesses to being green - particularly, but not exclusively if they are in the real estate or development industries - will profit from reading The Green Building Bottom Line. Melaver, Mueller, and their co-authors give a detailed account of the emergence of one firm as a leader in environmental sustainability. They point out principles that apply to many firms, and the challenges that face many leaders when they are trying to shift a mindset in an industry.

Edited by Martin Melaver and Phyllis Mueller, The Green Building Bottom Line — The Real Cost of Sustainable Building, New York, McGraw-Hill, 2009. ISBN 978-0-07-159921-4.

To read an excerpt click here.

To order a copy visit www.mhprofessional.com.

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