I haven’t written much about EcoBroker, my brother’s company. John, who earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis (but did much of his research down at UC Berkeley), and who was the government’s senior liaison between the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the DOE (Department of Energy), has spent the past decade and a half incubating environmentally-friendly businesses from his offices in Evergreen, CO. Each has had its unique character and unique successes, but EcoBroker is a run-away hit. From its strategic high ground at the convergence of the growing consumer demand for all things green and the long-viable (if somewhat sleepy, the CDO/subprime crisis notwithstanding) residential real estate business, EcoBroker has capitalized not only on the desire of consumers to buy smarter, but also to take control of their environmental footprint. (In fact, in a recent survey of house-buying consumers, 90% said that environmental responsibility was something for which they would select when buying a house.)

If the recent press coverage of EcoBroker in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or Newsweek didn’t get your attention, then perhaps this excellent television interview with Brother John will. (For the record, he’s the good-looking one in the family!)

Click To Play For most consumers, the single biggest financial investment they will make in their lives will be their primary residence. It thus follows that if those consumers want to have an environmentally-positive impact, they should look not just to their incidental purchases (“would you like paper or plastic today?”) but to their largest purchase in order to effect their environmental responsibility. Go find an EcoBroker, pick a responsible and efficient house, and make a difference with every mortgage payment!