STILL GREEN BEHIND THE EARS

What a whirlwind. I got home at 2:30 in the morning from our Green Designation course, and got back up bright and early to hit the office to catch up on what I’ve missed. I haven’t really had time to process all I learned in the past 2 days, but I am energized like a solar battery on a sunny day over all the concepts and information I learned from our seminar.

For one thing, I sell property in a beautiful mountain community that is up in arms about the uncontrolled growth we are experiencing. Several other communities in this area have been overtaken by commercial enterprises and franchises to the extent that they have lost their natural beauty. In the course of taking this course, I have gained an understanding of the core principles of eco friendly building and I have been given a plethora of resources for Green planning, which I belive is exactly what our area is looking for, in terms of smart growth.

I thought Green building would be a less than riveting subject matter, but I actually got very excited by the material taught in the class. The instructor was quite animated, and we had a great guest speaker who is building zero energy homes. For those, like me, who never heard of this concept before, the home, through careful planning and utilizing new technologies, is powered primarily by it’s own energy. The exciting thing was that it is affordable, which was also new to me.

There are so many exciting concepts that it has my head spinning. I just think I need a good night’s sleep to process the raw data a bit more. That and a week in front of a computer to visit all the websites we were given as resources for all things “Green.”

I’m still really not sure what I will do with all the information I have learned, but the core objectives of the Green movement are right in line with my core beliefs about personal responsibility for stewardship of this earth we all live on. I feel moved to action; I’m just not sure what that action is, yet.

I get to take one more day of class in Atlanta in 2 weeks, in order to receive my GREEN designation as a Realtor, and I can’t wait. I have a really good feeling about making Green living part of my, and my family’s life. I’m just a little green behind the ears still.