The Greystar Green Awards

Twice a year, Greystar sponsors a Green Awards program to promote sustainability at its communities. This past spring, almost 700 communities were eligible to participate in the Greystar Green Awards. Today we congratulate 182 communities who won the 2014 Green Award for their efforts in sustainability. For the first time, properties vied for Gold and Silver level awards, and eight qualified. They are Greystar Red River Flats, North Tract Lofts and the Village at Westpoint (GOLD), and Elan 33 West, Plantation Colony, Regatta, Upper Kirby and WaterWall Place (SILVER). A complete list of award winners can be found on our website.

Our winners came from all over the map and indicate a high level of commitment to what we do at Greystar to save money and save the planet… we do small things every day that add up to big differences for our residents, team members and clients. These communities did things like recycling, creating community gardens, making high efficiency lighting choices, providing bike repair shops and changing air filters and toilet flappers regularly. And so much more…

The pioneering, interactive Green Awards program is loosely modeled after the point system used by USGBC’s for LEED (Leadership in Environmental Engineering and Design), but is specifically tailored to Greystar’s apartment community management processes and its strategic vendor partners. This proprietary awards program is the cornerstone of Greystar’s sustainability strategy and provides the means to educate associates, as well as the ability to track and report specific sustainability practices in place at each community and corporate office. The program also provides guidelines for choosing the right blend of practices based on the uniqueness of each community and the community owner’s preferences.

Greystar created the Green Awards to challenge our team members, our owner clients and our residents to develop more sustainable practices and lessen the environmental impacts at all of our communities. Greystar believes that energy management and sustainable practices enhance the financial value of the communities we manage and help to preserve the environment for future generations. The company is fundamentally committed to minimizing environmental impacts through the continuous improvement of our energy performance and through sustainable operating practices.

In 2013, Greystar launched its first SUSTAINABLE SEPTEMBER. The corporate offices and communities, using internal resources and their imagination, created a number of projects to promote sustainability. Greystar believes that small changes made every day at our communities will have a huge impact on the planet. Now that Greystar has acquired Riverstone Residential, they’re gearing up to make in an even bigger impact with Sustainable September 2014. Over one million people in the US now live in a Greystar apartment home, so the collective effort of our residents and team members will have a huge ripple effect nationwide.

If you are interested in supporting green apartment living, there is probably a Greystar location in your area sponsoring a project in your community. We would love to see you there, because we know that we are all in this together and we need to support one another to preserve the beauty and bounty of this planet.