Class-G.org is now GreenRated.org – Backgrounder
August 5, 2021 – Pittsburgh, PA
Ten years after its original launch, Class-G.org, a sustainability measurement and communications platform, relaunched today as GreenRated.org, a sustainability a) measurement checklist, b) loss-recovery calculator, and c) communications platform. And the changes are significant.
In 2010, Jim Scalo, a leading commercial real estate developer, asked his then marketing consultant, Joe Blattner, “Shouldn’t a sustainably-managed Class-A office building get a better rating than “A”? How about Class-G? What,” he wondered, “is the commercial viability for this idea?”
Blattner (formerly the founder and owner of Western Pennsylvania’s largest advertising agency, Blattner Brunner, and founder of COMPackage, the world’s first do-it-yourself online Total Compensation Statement solution), studied the inquiry for a few weeks and returned to Scalo’s management committee a business plan that provided for significant community impact over the next many years. Not just locally, but all of North America. Scalo loved it and invited Blattner to a 50-50 partnership in the concept.
Greene & Goode, L.P. was born, the parent company to Class-G, L.P. Blattner would fully create and operate the new venture, and Scalo would endorse and evenly support any of Blattner’s initiatives. To-date, over $800,000 has been invested in the Class-G/GreenRated platform and the sister platform, CleanRated. The partnership has been 10 years of delight between the two partners.
Blattner assembled a team of expert sustainability advisors and launched Class-G in July 2011 as a platform to identify 99 sustainability practices for users of commercial space. The initial focus was mostly on office space, but there were really no limitations to the location’s primary use. And it immediately became a tool for users of commercial space, vs. owners as originally thought, as 65% of the checklist questions are about facility utilization, and only 35% are about how the space was built.
The platform has successfully helped hundreds of locations across North America identify sustainability practices, implement them organization-wide, and communicate the client mission to its employees and customers.
Communication tools included a granite plaque with a QR code that linked to a profile page that listed all of the sustainability actions that were being taken. This was offered at an economical cost of $300 to $1,200 per location, depending on the number of locations licensed and the term.
Since then, an entire host of additional innovative tools have been developed and integrated into the core Class-G product, recently relaunched as GreenRated.
Then came the pandemic which, like most all businesses, stalled Class-G. Blattner saw an opportunity to mirror most of Class-G’s features and functions in service of companies trying to grapple with client and employee issues related to the pandemic. He created a new expert advisory board, and quickly built and successfully launched the CleanRated.org return-to-work platform in June of 2019.
Recognizing the easy understanding of the CleanRated brand, Blattner recommended changing Class-G to GreenRated, and return to the market providing a bundled solution (if a user purchases one platform, the other can be purchased at a discount of 50-70%).
This is where Greene & Goode, L.P. is today, completely enabled for growth all throughout North America. GreenRated.org and CleanRated.org help commercial locations manage sustainably, as well as in a healthy manner, and clearly communicate each clients’ identified practices to their employees, customers, and community.
Early response has been very enthusiastic. This story is yet to be told.
