REAL Building Consultants provides services to the real estate industry – ranging from building owners, real estate developers, architects, and contractors to publicly traded companies and corporations – to help them design and build innovative, energy-efficient, healthy and sustainable buildings.
From the project visioning to early design, through construction and operations, REAL Building Consultants works with developers and building owners to make sure that their project is designed, built and operated to reduce its impact on the environment and maximize return on investment.
THE STORY
Founded by Taylor Ralph, REAL Building Consultants have been in business since 2008. A couple of years before the start of the consulting firm, Ralph started a design/build company with his co-founder/business partner Darren Brinkley—designing and building net-zero energy, LEED platinum, custom-built homes and working on very innovative projects in the residential space. Soon after, Ralph started to get a lot of attention around the innovative, third-party certified projects being developed and commercial developers and building owners began to call, asking if he could consult on their projects. He was smart enough to say “yes,” when asked for help. Before he knew it, he had started a commercial consulting practice within the residential design-build firm, and in 2008 REAL Building Consultants was officially formalized. In 2012, the consulting business had grown so much that Ralph ended up selling the ownership in the original design-build company to work full-time on the consulting side.
From the early days, REAL Building Consultants worked on some of the most cutting-edge green building projects and helped their clients exceed their expectations in building performance. In 2008, the green building market was still in its early stages of growth, and REAL was there to help many of their clients build some of the first LEED-certified projects in the Tampa Bay region.
Over the years, REAL Building Consultants helped to define what green building was to the market and developed a system of performance goals that helped their clients realize the business case for sustainable buildings. REAL Building Consultants has helped clients reduce their energy and water use in the buildings, while also promoting alternative transit use and the health and productivity of a space for its occupants.
Taylor Ralph, Founder
REAL Building Consultants has always tried to maintain a diverse set of clients, working with the most well-known developers in the market that are doing important projects for the region, while also helping Tampa Bay to grow into a more mature green building market. Traditionally, the firm works with developers, institutional owners like universities, publicly traded companies, as well as non-profits, small businesses, community institutions, and governmental agencies. They cover the entire spectrum inside the commercial development sector, including multi-family projects that realize that their buyers and renters are demanding a home that is environmentally conscious, efficient and healthy.
When a company or developer wants to develop a project in a sustainable manner, REAL Building Consultants helps them to define what that means based on their financial goals and mission; making sure that they are actually designing a project in a responsible, efficient and healthy manner, and achieving the goals they have set up for their business. REAL works to ensure that their clients are building buildings that are making a positive impact on the health and productivity of its occupants, while also reducing the building’s environmental impact.
REAL Building Consultants team also works to help clients and the market, in general, better understand sustainability practices, and how to holistically develop a “green building,” sharing lessons learned while speaking at events, offering educational sessions and volunteering with various real estate-based non-profits. With over 60 years of experience combined in building design, functional performance and construction, REAL Building Consultants is making a major contribution to the green building movement.
