GreenRenter fills niche

GreenRenter aims to provide a market for "green" rentals in Portland.

While Portland homebuyers can use the multiple listing service to find homes with green building attributes, renters have been left out in the dark.

Portland-based GreenRenter is trying to help by offering online listings of homes, apartments and office spaces with energy-efficient, good indoor air quality and other green building attributes. Greenrenter.com lists buildings at all stages along the sustainability continuum so renters can find a living or work space that matches their environmental ethics, according to company co-founder Pam Pickens. 

But for now, the bar for listing a building on the site is low, says Picken's business partner Lev Tsypin: As long as the building includes one feature in any of seven areas (energy, water, building materials, operations, building surroundings, certifications and awards, other innovative green features), the building is eligible for listing.

The company launched the site in April 2008 after a year of development. Currently, most of the listings on the site were seeded by the company’s four founders, who searched through listings of certified buildings and other similar resources to find suitable content for the site. Eventually, the company says its hopes building owners will list their own properties and describe the green improvements they’ve made.

Simply installing compact fluorescent light bulbs might allow a landlord to list on greenrenter.com, but potential renters can limit their searches to spaces with more features, including Energy Star-certified appliances or proximity to mass transit. And over the next month, the company plans to roll out a "GreenScore" for every property listing making it easier for users to find buildings with the most green attributes.

Revenue will come from ads on the site as well as partnerships, according to Pickens. With about 10,000 views a month right now, Tsypin says the traffic is adequate. Pickens says GreenRenter will find its market as landlords discover, as she has, that renters looking for "green" properties are renters that both stay and renters that potentially will pay a premium.