01/03/06 Sustainability is not a logo

I happened on an environmental web site that was touting a very successful eco-friendly real-estate entrepreneur who develops and brokers commercial and residential properties in a "sustainable" manner. Come-on, a real estate brokerage and sustainability are an oxymoron. Having worked for one of the most lucrative brokerages in the Northwest I can tell you there is nothing "eco- friendly" about gobbling up land for subdivisions, no matter how many green belts you leave to sooth your soul. This real estate entrepreneur is being heralded for practicing sustainalbity simply because he wants to sell sustainable properties for green bucks.. What a gimmick, Sustainability should be a life style not a logo. People like this "eco- phony" real estate broker chastise the methods of traditional farmers, yet farmers have grown crops for generations on the same land, while developers remove land forever from cultivation and then pat themselves on the back for building a whole foods market and free trade coffee shop in the new mini- mall. Who is practicing sustainalbity? http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2005/09/26/melaver/index.html?source=weekly