Green & Sustainability

At FirstService Residential Management, we are always looking for ways we can make life better for residents living in the communities served by our partner companies. In addition to providing hassle-free management services, we’re committed to adopting more sustainable management practices in an effort to help our residents lead healthier, more environmentally friendly lifestyles. What’s good for the environment is also good for our residents. This commitment to fostering sustainable communities has led to the creation of our Green & Sustainability Council, a national task force that is charged with the mandate of helping our residents and employees achieve a better quality of life through sustainable management practices. Building knowledge to foster sustainable communities The better informed we are, the better we can help our communities become more sustainable which is why we’ve adopted a multi-pronged approach based on education. First, we are educating our employees and following the US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED standard to guide our learning.  To date, we have 50 LEED APs and GAs among our ranks across the country, and will have many more by the end of the year. These are highly motivated, enthusiastic individuals who have stepped up to become knowledge leaders within their own organizations and who are committed to finding cost effective solutions for everyday administrative and managerial functions.  Classes and webinars are available on our national training system, FSR School of Professional Development, to facilitate learning. Second, we are using this knowledge to implement best practices within our organization to lessen our impact on the environment.  We have committed to implementing 10 key initiatives at all our offices that we call the Fast 5 and Big 5. The Fast 5 are simple, sensible and straightforward: Establishing "Green Teams" at each partner company to coordinate and roll-out our initiatives; ensuring all our printing and copying is double-sided; no longer purchasing bottled water or polystyrene cups; implementing electronic waste recycling programs for our offices; and creating a data capturing and monitoring mechanism so we can track our progress. The Big 5 are bigger projects with big impacts:  Developing comprehensive conservation policies and strategies with respect to energy and water use; creating recycling programs; rolling out a national green cleaning policy and best practice guide; and developing sustainable purchasing, renovation and green lease policies. The FirstService Residential family of companies, which provide management services to more than 1,000,000 homeowners throughout the United States, is committed to applying our knowledge to what we do best -- providing professional management services that contribute to healthier, more sustainable lifestyles for our residents. We are partnering with our communities to reduce costs while doing the right thing. All our programs consider the triple bottom line economic, social and environmental impacts. We are continuing to learn through this process to develop long-term sustainability plans for our communities.Find out how you can "go green" in your community. FS Energy  - A holistic approach to energy management  FirstService Residential subsidiary FS Energy was launched 2009 to help building owners evaluate their environmental footprint and offer customized, cost-effective solutions that reduce energy expenses, boost efficiency and shrink carbon their footprint. The core of the system is the FSdata benchmarking database which comprises years of comprehensive historical data for hundreds of residential and commercial buildings representing a variety of diverse building types. FS Energy is already delivering significant cost savings to more than 100  buildings in the NYC area.  More information can be found at www.fsenergyservices.com. If you are interested in learning more about our Green & Sustainability initiative, please contact David Diestel at 866.522.3671.