About |
Why Green Horizons?
Around ten years ago I was given one of the best pieces of advice I ever received about the impact we are having on our planet 'Act Locally Think Globally'.
Most of us can control our local environment to some extent and many people try to do so by Re-cycling, Turning electrical appliances off at night, Buying lower emission cars, Using 'green' products for every day life etc. 'Carbon Footprint' is a phrase that increasingly trips off the tongue as we have now been hearing and saying it for many years. I turn on my TV and some of the worlds most influential companies from Microsoft to Google, Toyota to Honda are telling me about the environmentally friendly benefits of their products and services.
So we decided to make our company Carbon Neutral, offsetting all of the CO2 emissions caused in the day to day running of our business *. We also did the right thing at home, making every effort to 'Act Locally Think Globally'. Boy did we feel smug, our carbon bases were covered.
Our commitment
But...... on refection we felt that for an international property company this was simply not nearly good enough. "Local" for us is, in fact, Global.
According to the Carbon Tust, 45% of the total energy used in the UK is caused by the use of energy within buildings, and a further 33% is used up travelling between buildings. Although those figures are specifically for the UK, I doubt they will be much different around the globe. Now factor in the added emissions spent in air travel for those of us involved in buying, selling and owning properties internationally and you can begin to appreciate the scale of the problem. We are not feeling quite so smug now!
Green Horizons was therefore born out of our local commitment to think globally. We considered how we could make a real difference? How we could we take some of the responsibility for our industries impact on the environment. We aim to ensure that in future, buyers and sales agents can more easily identify those developments, amongst all the thousands available worldwide, which are making a significant effort to reduce their impact on the environment.
Out of this thought, Green Horizons and The GREEN Building Standard (GBS), has become a reality. The GBS is a rating system which awards developers a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum award for each of their projects depending on how environmentally friendly those projects are. Purchasers will, in future, be able to see very easily which developments have qualified for this award and buy their new property safe in the knowledge that they are buying one the "greenest" properties available anywhere in the world.
92% of purchasers say they want to buy "GREEN" - Make your commitment now
Our own research has shown that over 92% of purchasers would, if presented with a choice, buy a property with good environmental credentials (click the "research" link above for more information).
This site, and the properties listed on it, are to be promoted widely in both the consumer and industry media to ensure that the GREEN Building Standard becomes THE sign of environmental responsibility in the international property industry.
So, now it's time to make your own personal commitment. If you are a potential purchaser, make sure that you buy only properties that have received a GBS award; if you are a developer, apply now for your GBS rating and start promoting your environmentally friendly propertes to 92% of potential purchasers now.