History of the
ECO-Agent Program

The Asheville Board of REALTORS® (ABR) looked into the future and began to do some brainstorming about the need for real estate professionals to understand basic environmental concerns and sustainable development. David West, CEO of ABR, and Margie Meares, director of the local nonprofit Clean Air Community Trust, at the time, started talking about the need for some kind of training program and what that might look like.

In 2004, a group of environmental professionals and interested REALTORS® began to meet to discuss the needs and possibilities for such a program. Organizations and individuals involved in the early meetings and included:
• ABR staff: David West, Nancy Birmingham, Susan Roberts, Al Shepard
• Clean Air Community Trust: Margie Meares (former director)
• Buncombe County Cooperative Extension Office: Nancy Ostergaard
• Home Energy Partners: Maggie Leslie (now with WNCGBC), Issac Savage
• Lead Poisoning Prevention Program: Linda Block
• REALTORS®: Patti Cunningham-Wolfe, Mary Love (also co-director of Western North Carolina Green Building Council), Deb Marshall, janeAnne Narrin
• RiverLink: Phillip Gibson (now with Warren Wilson College)
• Western North Carolina Green Building Council (WNCGBC): Matt Seigel
• Western North Carolina Regional Air Quality Agency: Ashley Featherstone

In less than a year, the program was designed and running. By fall of 2005, Margie Meares conducted the first core training course using a 67-page student manual that she primarily authored. Phillip Gibson did the chapter on Issues of Soil and Water.

In the preamble to the manual, Environmental Issues: Resources for Healthy Choices, Margie listed two reasons for the course. The first reason is the fact that things are not well with our environment. How we relate to our environment will affect human survival. Decisions people make concerning their purchase of a home or property are going to affect the world in one way or another.

The second reason for the course is that real estate agents have a duty to be informed about issues that can become material facts. Clients need to feel confident that their agent is informed about current issues that could affect them. Environmental issues definitely fall in that category.

In the first chapter of the manual four goals are listed for the real estate professionals who participate:

• Be able to assess the relevancy the relevancy of environmental facts on specific real estate transactions

• Be able to respond, with the help of the resources present here, to issues regarding “facts of special interest to the client” on a variety of environmental topics including air and energy, soil and water

• Be able to guide the client to a variety of information on environmental regulations and alternatives that will be of service to both the client and the community

• Know more about populations trends, air and water quality, sediment control, land trust, greenways, energy conservation and alternative, and other relevant environmental issues

This course served as a condensed introduction to the overall program and the first of a series of two required core courses, the only two facilitated by the ABR. A two day, sixteen hour course was later held, which built upon the introduction. Sixteen one-hour sessions were presented by environmental professionals in the Asheville area. The first day covered indoor issues and the second day covered outdoor issues. The course was called: Inside and Out: Environmental Issues in Real Estate.

To expand on the core courses and round out the real estate professionals exposure to environmental real estate issues, various organizations began to offer classes on specific topics. Sixteen elective credits were required in addition to the twenty core course credits. Most of the electives offered were about four hours in length and participants earned four credits, so participation in about four electives completed the requirements.

Electives have been conducted by the Western North Carolina Green Building Council, Warren Wilson College, The Cradle of Forestry, the local NC State Extension Office, the REALTORS® Land Institute, North Carolina State University, the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, and RiverLink.

Elective topics have included many that are relevant to “green” building and real estate such as a whole course just on mold; alternative energy; native plants; site planning; radon, lead and mold: what you need to tell your clients; the HealthyBuilt Home program; natural building; zero energy homes; healthy crawl spaces; insulation products and techniques; sustainable land use; storm water management; conservation easements and tax and estate planning.

The program is still being conducted as originally designed, with Corean Hamlin, ABR’s associate for education, facilitating some of the core courses.

Since beginning the program, other real estate boards have heard of its success and have become interested in designing similar courses for their areas. Recently, the National Association of REALTORS® has also announced a new designation for realtors to become certified at the national level as environmentally aware of the issues affecting real estate.

There is at least one other national program for green certification. There are a number of significant advantages to local or regional training and certification programs, however. Issues vary greatly from one area to another. For example, learning about the dangers of building on steep slopes won’t help you if you live in a level area. Also, being able to learn in a classroom and on field trips from environmental specialists who work in your own area is invaluable in learning more about your own area as well as building a useful network of people who may be able to help you or your clients one day.

We are grateful to the people who had the foresight to create this program and we take seriously the responsibility of continuing to update and improve the program as our global home continues to push us in the direction of a greener world.