In St. Louis, Mattingly Lumber is one dealer that “gets it,” says Matt Belcher, president of Belcher Homes and chairman of the Green Building Conference who was instrumental in getting the St. Louis Green Building Initiative underway last October. “They really sat down and studied the guidelines,” Belcher says of Mattingly. “They see a market opportunity for themselves, of course, but beyond that they can take advantage of [that] market opportunity but feel good about doing it.” For example, Mattingly took the lead determining how wall panel systems would be coordinated for Belcher’s homes, creating efficiencies that helped the builder in the eyes of the customer.
Mattingly Lumber executive vice president and general counsel John Mattingly Jr. says that a lot of the products the two-unit dealer was already stocking were green, they just needed to make a more organized push of those attributes to customers. “There is more and more attention [being] brought to the green building initiative,” he says. “And people are asking questions about what products are available.”
Education, for themselves, their builders, and their builders’ customers, is key, and the dealer is active in the green building program’s meetings. “We as pro sales dealers have to be the vehicle for information,” he says. “Builders hit from every different direction … We have to be the vehicle to educate them that there are options out there.” One area Mattingly emphasizes is how waste elimination through the use of pre-built systems helps both the environment and the bottom line.
For builders and suppliers alike, going green supports the same purpose in the end: satisfying the customer while doing good. “One, you know you’re doing the right thing,” Cobo says. “And two, you know you’re giving your clients the best possible product that you know how.”
