4th Annual Green Genius Awards for Brokers
By Krystal Meiners, Director of Marketing, Green Canopy Homes
The Green Genius Awards are the region’s first and only awards to honor real estate brokers who are helping to transform the Pacific Northwest into a hub for greener living and a leader in sustainable community development. The winners of the Green Genius Awards were announced at the Built Green Conference and Awards Ceremony on September 13th.
This year’s conference was attended by a veritable mix of green home builders, real estate professionals, policy makers, architects, and green home technology and materials experts. The Conference took place at Cascadia College in Bothell and kicked off with an inspirational keynote from famed natural capitalism expert, Hunter Lovins. Conversations spanned technology, community, and the growth of the real estate market. Green Genius Winners were selected based on objective data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service as well as qualitative criteria for their marketing and sales efforts – all of which was vetted by the Green Genius Awards Committee which included staff from Built Green, Washington State Housing Finance Commission, and Green Canopy Homes.
“Real estate agents translate the value of green building to the market. As such, these professionals are ‘agents of change and transformation’ for a society that is in desperate need of a massive market shift to have a green future…or frankly, any future at all,” says Krystal Meiners, the Director of Marketing for Green Canopy Homes, which created the Green Genius Awards in partnership with Built Green in 2012.
The Green Genius winners from 2016 included the following high-impact professionals:
Selling Agent of the Year
Finalists included:
Winner: Daniel Burton, Redfin
Daniel Burton, a Puget Sound native, is an advocate for quality housing livability, sustainable development, and public transit. He has successfully lobbied at the city and state level to implement urban planning improvement projects across Seattle. He cites the beauty of Seattle’s natural environment and its Native American history as contributors to the success of the green building movement in the Pacific Northwest. Daniel represented buyers of certified Built Green homes ranging in price from the mid-$400k price range to over $1M.
Listing Agent of the Year
Finalists included:
For Fiore Pignataro, real estate is about people as much as about houses. With a Master’s in education and a diverse teaching background, he enjoys the process of turning complicated tasks into easy-to-digest processes. Fiore sees the next frontier of green building including increased systems for self-sufficiency, such as solar panels and geothermal energy. Fiore’s listings in 2015-2016 included 4- and 5-Star certified Built Green projects in Seattle on Beacon Hill, Central, and Wedgwood.
Selling Office of the Year
Windermere RE Wall Street dominates the Seattle city core in certified Built Green transactions with multiple office locations in Queen Anne, Magnolia, West Seattle, and its namesake office in Belltown. John Wellman, designated broker and general manager, received the award on behalf of Windermere RE Wall Street’s brokers who sold certified Built Green homes. Leah Pham, broker from the Queen Anne office, attended the conference with her homebuyer client Melinh Jones Nozynski. Mei spoke on a panel during the conference with other homeowners exploring the benefits and positive impacts of living in a green home. Windermere RE Wall Street sold over $8M in certified 4- and 5-Star Built Green homes in 2015-2016.
Listing Office of the Year
Finalists included:
Berkshire Hathaway HSNW, which recently expanded in to the Seattle/Puget Sound region in 2015, is led by president and CEO Jason Waugh. As the green building movement has become more mainstream in innovative cities such as Portland and Seattle, Jason cites that the market shift cannot be “unlearned” because the benefits of green home’s comfort, health, and lower operating costs are now so evident. Berkshire Hathaway certified Built Green listings in King County represent approximately $16M in transactions and involved a diverse group of agents. Top agents including Paul Poirier, Tim Bower, and Mark Leingang who received the award on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway.
Photo credit: Alabastro Photography