For most of my career, I have been involved in municipal and environmental planning, and the conservation of significant natural areas, both marine and terrestrial.  Early on, I was enamored with the notion of building houses, a skill and passion I continue to hone.  Currently, I work as a land planning and real estate consultant.  My professional interests include conservation and green building transactions, thus my website name, Maine Conservation Buyers.com.  I emphasize buyers only because this is an evolving area of real estate practice and at this point, there are far more buyers interested in these areas than sellers.  Of course, I am available to help both buyers and sellers with all aspects of any real estate transaction.  I specialize in helping people to understand how they can reduce their impact on the environment as they make decisions about where they want to live, the type of house they prefer, energy efficiency, building materials and methods, even the lifestyle choices that may impact these factors. 

The term "green" is receiving a lot of attention these days, but it's not always easy to determine the best way to approach your sustainabilty and green building goals.  I have been trained specifically in this area and have earned my LEED AP accreditation from the U.S. Green Building Council.  LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and it's widely considered the best certification program for green building.  With this training and my background in construction and land planning, I can offer my clients honest and thoughtful advice on a wide variety of sustainability and green building-related aspects of real estate and land development.  If you are interested in these topics, and need someone to advise and assist you as you begin to explore ideas and options, please consider contacting me for aditional information on my services.

Green Building Trends
According to McGraw Hill Construction's "Green Outlook 2009: Trends Driving Change", the market for green building is poised to grow significantly.  A few of the significant findings included in the report are:
  • 70% of homebuyers said they were more inclined to buy a green home in a down economy than a non-green home.
  • Residential green building is expected to increase by 100% in the next five years. 
  • Almost two-thirds of all state governments have adopted green building policies, with roughly a third coming onboard in the last three years alone!