Corcoran greenlights eco-friendly efforts 

The Corcoran Group is stepping up its efforts to go green.

“You try and be responsible,” said Pam Liebman, president and CEO of Corcoran. “So many buildings we work on at Corcoran Sunshine [the Corcoran Group and Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group] are green buildings.” 

The most recent endeavor is compiling a fact sheet for homeowners who want to live in an environmentally-friendly home. The sheet — paperless, of course — will be distributed to new buyers, said Kim Klever, vice president of administration at Corcoran.

To go paperless, the company continues to add resources to ECorcoran, the company’s Intranet database, Klever said. Also, Corcoran is buying electronic reference materials and transferring paper materials to CDs.

Kathy Braddock, co-founder of Charles Rutenberg Realty and consulting firm Braddock + Purcell, said that Corcoran could face some internal opposition as old-school brokers may resist entering the e-age. 

Braddock, whose firms are paperless, said Corcoran’s efforts are two-fold. 

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“It’s good for the environment,” Braddock said. “It’s good for the pocketbook.”

Corcoran’s green initiatives originated from an in-house green committee, overseen by Klever. The six-person group, started in late 2006, is comprised of four managers and two brokers and meets quarterly.

“We started the green committee because our company and so many people within it wanted to do something to help the environment,” Klever said. “So far, going green has naturally saved energy and conserved resources/materials, which in turn reduced costs. This has been more of a side effect than [a] driving force.”

Corcoran recycles old equipment and uses energy-efficient light bulbs and thermostats, all on timers. The offices now have water coolers instead of water bottles. When ordering office supplies online, office managers must select the green option for certain office products.

The next phase is more volunteerism. The company has recycling drives benefiting charities in the planning phases, Klever said.