Sustainability Solutions for Realtors in the Sunshine State
Just as Realtors® serve customers by knowing about the market and community—they also must learn about the many programs that help keep Florida’s natural environment protected.
Angela Grannan has always been passionate about protecting the environment. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and management, and she worked as an environmental consultant for commercial real estate for more than two decades.
When she and her husband and business partner, Chad Grannan, formed The GRANNAN Group in St. Petersburg in 2022, they knew environmental stewardship would be a core part of their brokerage.
See Photos from the 2024 Water Cleanup Event
Around the state, local boards/associations, brokerages, YPN networks and others took to the waters for the first statewide water cleanup project. Take a look at their photos commemorating this amazing event.
“Creating shade and building green are not just good for the environment, they are good for business,” Angela Grannan says. “In our last couple of residential listings, we played up the big live oaks. When buyers walked under them, they could feel the cooler temperature.”
Grannan noted that houses on tree-lined streets tend to have a higher value. For commercial properties, many tenants and investors seek an efficient building with energy savings—so green building can equal more green in terms of leasing and sales.
“One of the things we are doing soon is a multifamily, mixed-use building. It will have a green roof for residents, with edible things that grow perennially in Florida,” she says.
In 2023, The GRANNAN Group partnered with Keep Pinellas Beautiful—a Keep America Beautiful affiliate—and various state and local organizations to launch the Plant Your Roots Program. They created a nonprofit, and their Plant Your Roots Program is a big hit in the Gulf Coast area that they serve.
“You can increase your buyer and seller pool by getting involved in green development and protecting the environment, Angela Grannan says. “Greenscapes can filter stormwater.
Just as Realtors® serve customers by knowing about the market and community—they also must learn about the many programs that help keep Florida’s natural environment protected.
Florida has 1,350 miles of coastline—second only to Alaska. It also has experienced some of the most frequent and devastating hurricanes in the nation.
Many buyers factor the cost of insurance—sometimes exceeding $1,000 per month, including windstorm and flood coverage—along with the base expense of a downpayment and mortgage.
Savvy real estate professionals are learning about higher ground, sunny-day flooding and how to become active with local elected and appointed officials—to make sure resiliency is at the forefront in a state dependent on real estate.
Florida’s explosive growth—rising to a population of roughly 23 million in 2024, up from 16 million in 2000—challenges planners, builders and residents as more ground is covered with pavement and rooflines, reducing the places high water can be absorbed back into the sandy soil.
The Sunshine State’s low-lying land, especially along its enchanting coastline, makes it vulnerable to flooding, rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion.
To empower real estate professionals with information, here are four projects of note across Florida, along with ways you can contribute to the sustainability of Florida’s environment:
1. Nature-based sea walls
Protecting real estate is of the upmost importance, but when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed gray, 10- to 30-foot-high seawalls as flood barriers, the Miami Downtown Development Authority took another tact. They commissioned a landscape architecture firm. As an alternative to view-destroying sea walls, Curtis + Rogers Design Studio proposed nature-based solutions, such as living shorelines, natural breakwaters, near-shore artificial reefs and some raised seawalls. The approach also would add 39 acres of waterfront, eco-friendly park land for the citizens of Miami.
2. Road elevation to protect from sunny-day flooding
In the Florida Keys, water is both a blessing and a curse. The narrow land mass—a 120-mile-long string of tropical islands with coastline on each side of it—has created a fun in the sun gold mine where nearly 50% of Monroe County residents work in the tourism industry. But the 80,000 people who call the Keys home year-round are experiencing sunny-day flooding—roads made impassible by tidal activity—no tropical storm rainfall required. Sea levels in Monroe County have risen nearly four inches from 2000-2017. A net additional six to 13 inches has been projected from 2018 to 2040, according to Monroe County government statistics.
Monroe County, which has a Resilience Officer, commissioned a roadway vulnerability assessment for the 311 miles of county-maintained roadways. They addressed ways to protect property in the face of rising water during king tides and other sea-level-rise events. The estimated cost to elevate roads and add a stormwater system is upwards of $4 billion. But the Keys do not have a large tax base. While leaders lobby for state and federal dollars, they understand the concept Adam Smith shared at one of NAR’s Sustainability Summits.
“We can’t afford not to champion sustainability. Adaptation can cost billions, but doing nothing comes at a much more staggering cost,” said Smith, a leading climate expert at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
3. Creating sustainable landscape practices
In Central Florida, which has plenty of waterways, but an elevation much higher than Florida’s coastal communities, a team of planners, developers, horticulturists, universities and nonprofits is looking at suburban building patterns that conserve land and water, while protecting nature and creating sustainable landscape practices.
The Outside Collaborative, a proactive nonprofit group in Central Florida, promotes resiliency subdivision by subdivision. Knowing that the combination of rapid growth, chemical runoff and saltwater infiltration threatens Florida’s sustainable freshwater supply, the collaborative has created a pattern book filled with designs that minimize or eliminate irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides.
In Pasco County, Starkey Ranch’s master plan avoids tract housing and strip center retail while using 95% native plants in the 2,500-acre development. Dix.Hite+Partners designed a community that connects people to nature. Boardwalks and pedestrian bridges float through nature without disrupting the land. Rather than huge suburban lawns that require intense watering and chemicals to maintain, the community’s greenery is focused on a permanent wilderness preserve donated by the Starkey family.
4. Protecting our shorelines
Though Miami Beach’s permanent population is only about 80,000, its total taxable value has soared above $50 billion. With a land mass of less than eight square miles, it is walkable, densely populated, but only four feet above sea level. Some of the most valuable residential and commercial real estate in the U.S. is vulnerable to both sunny-day tidal flooding and paralyzing flooding simply when it gets heavy rains.
The City of Miami Beach is investing roughly $1 billion in resiliency. Without a lot of wiggle room on a highly developed sand bar, the city is creating parks and rebuilding existing ones to handle stormwater. Bayshore Park will retain a central lake featuring a boardwalk. The nearly 20-acre park will feature meadows, jogging trails and walking paths—all woven into residency features. Brittany Bay Park on the Intracoastal Waterway uses a living shoreline to protect the community from storms and sunny-day flooding. Maurice Gibb Park increases resiliency by raising the seawall, increasing drainage capacity, planting native trees and creating a living shoreline of mangroves.
What Can You Do?
- Support legislation. In its more than 100-year history, Florida Realtors® has supported numerous member-driven initiatives pertaining to the environment and the preservation of Florida’s natural resources. Get to know these advocates who represent you in Tallahassee and make sure they approve legislation that protects Florida’s unique environment. Click here to learn how to get involved here.
- Get involved locally. Consider serving on your local planning, zoning or parks board. Advocate for planning that balances growth with protecting our white sandy beaches, the emerald coastline and crystal-clear freshwater springs. A healthy environment is key to a robust Sunshine economy.
- Join a cause. Each year, primarily in the month of July, Florida Realtors® and community partners come together to clean up our lakes, rivers, streams, bays, Intracoastal Waterway, gulf and ocean. Find out about efforts in your area by contacting your local association. Check out: floridarealtors.org/events/clean-up-florida-waters-about
- Create your own event. Learn about native, hardy trees and landscaping that do not require heavy watering. Work with a local brokerage, team and your local association/board of Realtors to organize an event. A simple tree planting can restore shade canopy and make neighborhoods cooler.
- Understand the issues. Learn about local and regional issues related to Florida’s hot summers and major storm events. Most large counties have resiliency and sustainability offices. They can be a great resource for ideas on hardening residential and commercial properties against flooding. They can explain loan programs to pay for home improvements that improve energy efficiency.
- Get to know your local elected officials. Encourage them to create master plans that protect valuable property and natural resources. Following Hurricane Idalia’s nearly $4 billion in damage, the City of Crystal River hired Dover Kohl & Partners Town Planning. The result is a master plan that supports rebuilding and future growth—embedded with techniques to mitigate flooding in ways that preserve a beautiful, walkable coastal community.
By partnering with government entities and promoting resilient building practices, real estate professionals can make a significant impact on the environment and their communities. With proactive engagement, education and community involvement, everyone wins when Florida’s natural environment is protected. #
Steve Wright is a Miami-based freelance writer who speaks and writes about sustainability.