Earth-friendly, growth-friendly - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Carlson has founded five firms inrecent years, many of them in the real estatse industry, which has suffered in the economidc downturn. Three of those companies, including property-managementt firm Cities Management and a smallconstructiom company, operate out of an officse in Northeast Minneapolis. Together, three companies employh 50 people and recorded a combined revenued last year ofabout $14 That’s up from about $5 million in the priot year. Carlson serves as chairman of her realestate businesses, whild Michael Egelston runs day-to-da operations as CEO.
In addition to the constructiojnand property-management firm, he is responsibled for leading SenEarthCo, a business that offers a Web-based document management system to other property management That business is growing at an average rate of between 10 and 15 percent Egelston said. The businesses were helper by factors such as a rash of spring stormsin 2008, as well as the tide of which left many homes in need of boosting business, Egelston said. Carlson and Egelston note that greemn practices have helped them save on helping them push througbthe downturn. In recent years, the firm has shrank its offic e spaceto 9,000 square feet, down from 11,00 square feet, saving on energy costs.
The firm also has gone nearlty paperless, and has most of its employees work from That has reducedthe company’s carbon footprint and helped employeed retention, Carlson said. Cities Management’s turnover rate is less than 15 percenft in an industry that often has turnoveer of more than50 percent. The firm also sendas construction workers out inhybrie cars, rather than trucks. (It late r sells its used hybridsto employees.) Carlsonb has taken lessons she’s learned out to othef companies, which has partly been an efforty to expand her businesses during the recession.
She recently consultesd with Minneapolis law firmGreen SenEarthCo, meanwhile, is picking up steam with other property-management firmsx who want to save money by reducing paped use. Cities Management’s experience with SenEarthCo has helpedr it promote the productto others. That inspired Scott Ghertner, co-president of Nashville, Tenn.-based property-management firm Ghertner & Co. to buy into the softwar product. “They ate their own he said.