Meek's Building Centers goes green

Attorney Mike Meek, however, is bringing green building to one of Missouri’s largest lumber dealers.

Mike Meek is corporate legal counsel for Springfield-based Meek’s Building Centers, which has more than 50 locations in four states and sales of nearly $400 million annually. He’s also son of Meek’s President Terry Meek, and Mike Meek is spearheading the family business’ green-building initiative.

In November, Meek’s earned certification from Germany-based Forest Stewardship Council as a “chain-of-custody broker.” Meek’s can order lumber certified by FSC, which has the mission to “promote environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests by establishing a worldwide standard of recognized and respected principles of forest stewardship,” according to FSC.

“It’s the first outward, aggressive move we’re making into the green-building market,” Mike Meek said.

It’s not the only move, though.

Meek’s and other area entities hosted a seminar Nov. 28 entitled Houses That Work, presented by Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Energy and Environmental Building Association. The seminar was aimed at building professionals and was meant to promote energy efficiency in homes, Meek said.

Meek’s has a two-step approach to going green: expand green inventory and host local green-building seminars quarterly.

“There’s a big education gap that needs to be filled here,” Meek said.

Green offerings

Green building already has come a long way in a short time, according to Nicholas Peckham, president of the Missouri Heartland Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Peckham, who also is an architect in Columbia, estimated that in 2000, less than 5 percent of building materials sold nationally were green. Today, he estimates about 20 percent of materials sold are green, which he says generally need to be rapidly renewable and have a high percentage of recycled content to qualify.

Green products can have other redeeming qualities, however. Indoor wall paint with low levels of volatile organic compounds can be healthier for human respiration, for example.

Even with the market explosion in green-building products, fueled by USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which debuted in 2000, Peckham said the market has a long way to go.

“A lot of what gets built, gets built fast, gets built cheap and gets built without a whole lot of deep thinking about what’s going on,” Peckham said. “Somebody says, ‘I want to put up a subdivision.’ They’ve done it before; they’re going to do it again. They go down to Meek’s, or wherever, and say, ‘I don’t care about FSC, just give me the cheapest stuff you got, because I’ve got to make money.’”

Meek said that FSC-certified lumber costs 10 percent to 20 percent more than traditional lumber.

Green goals

Meek’s is about halfway to its green goals, which Meek said are spurred by social consciousness and the desire to capitalize on the growing market.

Meek decided in March to make Meek’s greener, but he said his company has been green for its entire 87-year history. Lumber, Meek’s primary product, is a green product because trees can be replanted, he said.

Identifying what inventory of Meek’s is already green, and deciding what to add, is a slow process, Meek said.

“While there are some new products out there that may be preferable to things that have been used in the past, there’s a lot of snake-oil salesmen out there, too, that claim to have the newest, greatest, most sustainable product, and they don’t have a lot of science to back it up,” Meek said. “It’s tough from our perspective to try and wade through this information.”

Justin Hough applauds the green efforts of Meek’s, even though it creates competition for him.

Hough owns Innoviro, an environmentally friendly building materials store at 311 W. Commercial St. He opened in January, and he, too, can order FSC wood, though he’s not a certified broker.

About six months ago, Hough said he discussed with Meek a partnership between Innoviro and Meek’s, though nothing took off.

“I think that they are playing off market trends, as much as anything,” Hough said. “(But) I’m certainly impressed that they’ve taken the initiative to go that direction.”[[In-content Ad]]