Online Marketing for LEED

A recent independent study by the National Research Council found that the American Military (and U.S. taxpayers) are benefiting from the use of LEED at Pentagon installations. Benefits include reduced operating costs and improved health and well-being of occupants. As reports touting the benefits of green building continue to be published, the demand for green building rating systems, such as LEED, can only increase.

The growing demand for sustainability is only part of the story behind LEED’s potential staying power... Indeed, it’s the business enhancements, combined with its sustainability focus, that give LEED the greatest chances for long-term success.

Building owners increasingly view LEED as a marketing tool that can increase building value by approximately 11%. Tenants are attracted to LEED buildings because they understand that increasing employee productivity by just 1% can reduce their costs by up to $1.30 per square foot. The building construction industry is also finding new revenue streams in sustainable building products.

So if you are part of the building industry... How do you get started and participate in the business of sustainability?

Start by Getting to Know LEED

Learning how LEED works is the best way to kickstart your business’ green marketing efforts. Think of LEED as a sustainability framework through which your business' products and services can be viewed. LEED uses a points-based system to award tiered levels of certification to buildings that fulfill different credits and prerequisites across several categories of sustainability. The main categories are:

Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
Energy & Atmosphere
Materials & Resources
Indoor Environmental Quality
Innovation in Design

While LEED is a green building rating system, it's also easy to extrapolate it to products and services industries. Once you know where your business fits within these categories, you’ll need to craft your sustainability message and present this information in a clear and organized way on your website.

Site Organization

With social media everywhere, and everyone’s face firmly planted in a mobile device, you only have seconds to make a connection with someone. People scan articles online, but appear to rarely read. Indeed, because online media feels so fleeting, there has never been a greater opportunity to show you genuinely care about a customer’s time by delivering what they’re looking for in as few clicks as possible. While every site is different, your sustainability information should generally be at the top of your homepage and easy for visitors to navigate to.

On your website, offer an obvious menu item called “LEED” with two dropdown menu options that read “About” and “LEED Credits”. Your “About” section is an opportunity to educate new visitors, provide an overview of what LEED is and explain why sustainability is important to your industry. In the “LEED Credits” menu item, you can get specific and describe which credits and prerequisites your products or services are appropriate for. For information about specific credits and prerequisites, check out this page from USGBC.

Also, visitors who are familiar with LEED may be hoping your product fulfills a specific credit. By making it easy to find this information, you will leave them with a good impression.

Site Content

Explain in plain English how your product or service can help with green building and why. For instance, if you are in the asphalt business and offer pervious paving solutions for roadways, your product could help an architect or developer earn credits in the “Sustainable Sites” category of LEED. As such, you might go into detail explaining about the importance of mitigating water pollution and reducing stormwater runoff and how your product does this.

It is important to note that green building products themselves are never LEED certified. However, misinformed customers may still insist that they need products that ARE LEED certified. Alas, this is a common misconception and “How do I get my products LEED certified?” is a question that is asked of us on a regular basis.

If you aren’t sure how your product fits, and don’t have time to research every LEED rating system, there are experienced LEED consultants who would be eager to help.

Your Reputation

In addition to using clear language and user-friendly navigation, establishing trust is critical to creating a connection with a potential customer.

If your company has been involved in LEED certification projects, put those examples front and center, explain how your employees contributed and, whenever possible, include a case study about how your product was used. Describe the project in detail and when building your case study ask to interview the architect or designer who chose your product and what was achieved by using it. Simple, honest words from your own clients can also be very helpful for writing case studies, and give you an opportunity to tell a story.

Of course, these are just a few things to consider when crafting your website’s sustainability message... but by considering your site’s organization, content and reputation, you’ll be making it simple for visitors to find what they’re looking for, regardless of their level of knowledge. Hopefully, they’ll feel good about your company as a potential solution and you’ll create a new connection with a customer.