How are Light House’s market services mission-related?
Our role as solution-provider, gap-filler, capacity-builder and enabler is distilled from our economic development research and our ongoing industry pulse-check. We strongly believe that green building has the potential to create a significant new economic opportunity for BC and that, with the right motivation and commitment, can place BC in a position of competitive advantage. We publish regular economic development research updates in our Market Insights reports in Business in Vancouver and host an open discussion on green building market trends at our popular Market Insights breakfast briefings. Through our Market Insights research, surveys, focus groups and elite interviews, we have identified the most significant barriers to green building but also how best to address them. Our market-based services are filtered based on the extent to which they move the market to greener building practices. They are organized around the following objectives:
Enabling solutions
Light House programs are structured on the premise that businesses learn best by doing. Our professional staff will come into a project on a real-time basis to provide orientation, mentorship, technical assistance and support. As a market-neutral non-profit, we offer reassurance to businesses that we genuinely have the green interests of their project at heart.
Building capacity
The demand for green building services is outstripping the supply of qualified service providers. As a result of this lack of capacity, projects have been dropping some of the proposed green features or choosing not to pursue green building certification. Leading green building consultants increasingly look to Light House for help in the areas of green building documentation and energy modeling. We take these projects on not only to bolster the market but also to train interns and thereby close the gap between supply and demand.
Market-neutral non-profit services
There are certain services which a non-profit is uniquely positioned to provide. These include integrated design process facilitation and policy research where a market–neutral third party can offer an impartial perspective.
Our rates
Contrary to perception, our overhead costs are generally higher than conventional consulting businesses because we support the costs of the resource centre, a more substantial website, etc.
Our staff are all highly qualified green building professionals and we pay them on par with market expectations. We charge at (or slightly above) market rate on all our fee-for-service engagements because:
• We wish to counter any perception of unfair competition
• We wish to demonstrate the value of green building expertise
• We believe the rates are commensurate with the quality of our service
We do however, offer a negotiated discount to other non-profits.
For a summary of our current charge-out rates, please ask.
