Here we are again in a down cycle across the entire US and Global Economies. Companies and businesses have to continue to reinvent who they are and how they do it to survive. Green business has a great opportunity to grow and integrate more into production methods as companies look for new ways to do things. Business models in practically every industry has to be challenged, if not by our customers but by us in order for us to compete.

Having worked in business strategy and cost re-engineering for over two decades in all aspects of indirect and direct business cost/operations, we need to embrace this challenge, rise to it, and develop our talent and our thinking to find new opportunities and new markets.

Can green survive, I think yes in many aspects of real estate and of business. Technology is enabling a more remote work force. Less is the need to occupy a desk space. You can work from home and be connected and large companies can take millions out of their operating costs if they have the will and the expertise to implement flexible work plans and the appropriate infrastructure.

As prime business real estate in some markets become more cost prohibitive and the fight for talent and available work force to fill operations become more costly, a flexible workforce and real estate strategy is the only way businesses can continue to re-engineer costs.

At a residential level, I think builders needs to look at their materials and challenge production companies to find cheaper, greener, more responsible materials that will help reduce build cost, but can be done so in a way that it also improves construction times = reduced labor = reduced cost. A great example of this is in Norway where you can literally choose your home mass produced, and it is delivered in component form and built almost within a day on already laid foundations. GREEN and Cost Cutting can come together if only there is the courage to challenge business models and the product.