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The subject of this year’s Remodeling Leadership Conference is “Green: The Color of Money.” Today has been a series of back to back seminars on what it means to be green, why it’s important, and how to sell it.

Here are a few sound bites:

Corinne Asturias of Iconoculture, presented a compelling argument for Green Remodeling as a mainstream and enduring consumer preference. Among the supporting evidence she cited: The fifteen month waiting list for the $125,000 Tesla Roadster, an all electric car with a 200+ mile range.

She quoted an increasingly accepted definition of Sustainable Development: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” and noted how compelling that concept was to virtually every prospective home buyer or remodeling customer. 84% of Americans, she went on to say, believe that it is important for us to lessen our impact on the environment. Those 84% span the spectrum from uber-greenies who desire to be carbon neutral to grandparents who want to save money on utilities to new parents that are interested in a healthy home for their babies.

Mark Richards of Practica Consulting cautioned remodelers to avoid “greenwashing” their company images. Consumers are smart enough to discern when a company is committed and when a company is providing lipservice. He talked about the importance of training, and the need to get your entire team on board. Mark quoted a committed green builder in Oklahoma, Vern McKown of Ideal Homes, as saying, “If you are not prepared to fire half of your salespeople, don’t get into green building.” He also talked about the necessity of positioning green in way that resonates with buyers: i.e. use phrases like “high performance” rather than “efficient.”

Carl Seville, a green building consultant and one of the folks who helped to launch EarthCraft Remodeling, gave a presentation about the critical components of being green. First and foremost: high performance. Materials and power sources are secondary. Before we start building solar panels and wind turbines, we need to start practicing advanced framing techniques and better insulation practices. Carl also provided my favorite anecdote of the event so far.

Terry Brennan gave a talk about some construction dos and don’ts. He had a great way of introducing every point: On flashing, he suggested, “Don’t tuck your rainjacket into your rainpants.” On resource efficiency, he observed, “We can either reduce the amount of materials and resources we use, or we can reduce the amount of people on the planet.” On healthy home environments, he advised, “Start with the health and safety stuff, cause its bad to kill your customers.”

The conference concluded with an inspiring talk from Val Jones of Green For All. At the heart of his talk was his commitment to raising up the entire United States economy through green building practices, and doing so by helping poor uneducated youth develop the skills we need to “retrofit the United States.” To paraphrase his recurring theme, “We now have the opportunity to put green remodeling at the center of the economy — where the auto industry was after WWII — in our rebuilding of the United States. Let’s make it an inclusive economy that raises everyone up.”

And on top of the great speakers, there’s been plenty of roundtable chatter amongst the attendees. The hundreds of remodelers here are among the best of the best. These folks are passionate about creating great places to live (hence our desire to sponsor this event), and we’ve been very pleased to find such a strong reception — both from the dozens of our members that are here, and the many more prospective members who have been enthusiastic about learning more about GuildQuality’s customer satisfaction surveying.