By Amber Wason

I just got home from my first NVAR Green Task Force Meeting and am eager to report on the progress! This group of leading green REALTORS is tasked with taking on the ‘education’ component of LEED credits for its new NVAR Fairfax Headquarters off of Arlington Blvd in Fairfax, VA. It’s exciting to be apart of this forward-thinking group, and it speaks volumes for the industry that our own membership organization is building an eco-friendly headquarters, aiming for LEED certification.

The headquarters is well under construction. They broke ground on May 4th, 2009, and even buried in snow, it’s clear that progress is being made. (photo to the right taken today).

The Green Task Force will drive the Education component in order to gain credits toward the LEED certification. For education, we must provide signage regarding the various green features around the building, provide tours & outreach for the community, and/or publish a case-study on the project. We discussed several ideas around this framework, and have concluded that the signage and tours are a must. We also discussed having downloadable self-guided tours and short educational videos available for the website and for visitors of the building. We will produce brochures about the project, and plan to have laminated, reusable brochures available to cut down on waste from people tossing the brochures after use. Finally, we hope to outreach to nearby schools to educate children in the community about green building.

What do you think?!

Feel free to share any ideas you may have for the new GREEN NVAR HEADQUARTERS by commenting below, or email Amber at: amber@greenDCrealty.com!