My Lesson in Sustainability

Below is a re-post of an article I wrote last October.  It’s gotten a lot of positive feedback, and even caught the eye of Baltimore Magazine.  Here it is again, on my new WordPress Blog.  Enjoy!

I would certainly never describe myself as an environmentalist or a tree-hugger.  In my family, tree-hugging has always been relegated to my youngest sister, who does a fine job at it.  I am engaged in the global warming conversation/debate, mostly for its entertainment value, I’m ashamed to say.  I don’t like the sight of litter, so I do what I can to not propagate it.  I’m a person of faith, so I try to honor creation and have worked to teach my children to tread lightly on the earth.  But am I the guy who might …say… chain himself to a tree to protest deforestation?  Nope, that’s not me.  When it comes to things environmental, I guess I’ve been a bare-minimum person – doing just enough to not be accused of not caring, but not enough to really impact any change.

However, two weeks ago, I attended a neighborhood meeting sponsored by the Ten Hills Neighborhood Association and Baltimore CivicWorks at which I was introduced to the Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge.

Every now and then I’ll have what I call an A-HA moment.  An A-HA moment for me is that instant when I slap my forehead and say “I could’ve had a V8,” or “I should’ve known that,” or “So that’s what it’s all about” (you may call such moments epiphanies or light bulb moments).  This neighborhood meeting that I attended was one such moment for me.   I was so taken with the information that was given to us that I signed-up to be a block captain, and will very soon be knocking on my neighbor’s doors to convince them to take the Energy Challenge Pledge.

The thing that I found most impactful, the big A-HA for me, was the whole notion of Sustainability.  Sure, I’d heard the word before, recognized it as a good thing, certainly; but had never engaged in what it actually means and how far-reaching it can be.    At our meeting we learned about conserving energy and water, how to insulate our home, and those appliances that are classified as energy vampires.  The young people who facilitated the meeting used the word sustainable countless times and in countless ways.

However, it wasn’t until later that night when I was at home on my computer that I had the A-HA moment to trump all A-HA moments.  I looked up the word sustainability online and discovered that the dictionary defines sustainability as that which is capable of being sustained.  Here’s the cool part, though:  The dictionary goes on to define the word sustain like this:

1. To give support or relief to
2. To supply with sustenance (nourish)
3. Keep up, prolong
4. To support the weight of
5. To buoy up
6. To bear up under (suffer, undergo)
7. To support as true, legal, or just

Wow!  Now, I don’t presume that everyone reading this message is a person of faith, but for those of you that are, isn’t this what mission and ministry are all about?  And for those of you who may not be part of a faith tradition, isn’t this the same as good citizenship?  Aren’t we called, as inhabitants of this creation and as good neighbors, to live-out everything in the above list?

Although sustainability is about the greening of our world, about reducing carbon emissions, about reducing waste, and about recycling…it is also about so much more.  It is about creating a neighborhood/city/state/country/world that is non-violent; where the children are well-educated; where people are healthy; and where resources are abundant, valued, conserved, and shared.

I have quite obviously sent this message to you under the banner of my real estate business.  What, you may be asking, does any of this have to do with real estate?  Well, I think it has a lot to do with real estate.

Back in the middle years of the last century, a handful of unscrupulous local real estate agents, motivated by nothing more than greed, preyed on the fears of homeowners in nearby Edmondson Village and nearly destroyed an entire section of our city as a result of their actions.  So underhanded, destructive, and deceptive was the work of these agents that the neighborhood of Edmondson Village has never fully recovered.  So notorious and impactful were their deeds that they became the topic of textbooks and legal papers.  In fact, if one positive thing can be taken from this dark period in the real estate profession, it is that the Edmondson Village Blockbusting saga became the catalyst for a number of laws that made such future actions illegal.

The Edmondson Village story is an example of how impactful an industry can be when it uses its powers for ill…I would say that the people involved were practicing anti-sustainability. Yet, imagine how impactful my industry could be if we used our powers for good.  I feel it is the responsibility of all real estate professionals, or anyone who earns their living through the buying and selling of places, to do all in their power to lift-up and support those places that provide us with our income.

If I am selling a home that is near a park, don’t I have some responsibility to ensure that the park is a safe and healthy place to be?  If I’m selling a home on the bay, shouldn’t the bay be clean and free of toxins?  Shouldn’t schools be places of quality learning, and neighborhoods places of support and peace?  Bottom line – its good business.  As they say, it really is all about location, location, location.

Finally, if I am to be the agent of change that my marketing materials say that I am, I must be true to that.  If I am, as I try to be, a person who strives to make my vocation my ministry, then I am called to that.

Although you won’t see me hugging a tree anytime soon, I have gone ahead and created a webpage that I’d love for you to visit.  It’s all about sustainability and things that we, as individuals and as a community, can do.  Feel free to take a look at it and explore the many resources.  It is my supreme hope that you will find some tid-bit there that you might want to engage in, adopt as a practice, or simply dig deeper into.  It is, by no means, an all-inclusive list; so if you know of any resources that I can add to the page that you feel would be helpful to others, please let me know…I’ll be happy to include them.

To access the webpage, you can go to www.johnreynoldsrealty.com and click on the SUSTAINABILTY link at the top of the page or under the WHAT’S NEW box on the homepage.  Or just click here.

…and as always, if you or anyone you know has any real estate needs, I hope that you will think of me.

I hope all is well with you and yours!

I wish you Peace and Sustainability.