SentriLock, the Cincinnati-based lockbox, showing service, and experience management solution, has long put sustainability at the forefront of its manufacturing and operations. Company founder and CEO, Scott Fisher recently talked with REALTOR® Magazine about how Sentrilock puts sustainability into practice. The company, founded in 2002, is a subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS®.

What do you mean when you say SentriLock has a longstanding commitment to sustainability?

Our product has always been about reducing impact on the planet. It’s simple: SentriLock lockboxes reduce agents’ trips to pick up and drop off keys, and therefore carbon emissions. Features like our One Day Codes and FlexCodes let non-members participate in reducing extra trips, too.

Every SentriLock lockbox since our launch has had a user-replaceable battery providing exceptional product life, in many cases exceeding 15 years. We want you to be able to use your lockbox as long as possible.

How does sustainability factor into your business practices or influence the materials used in the manufacturing?

SentriLock’s business philosophy is innovation. We design and build new devices to delight our customers with the latest technology as well as drive out waste. Our new SentriGuard lockbox is the pinnacle in our product sustainability efforts, with highly reusable and durable materials such as stainless steel and recyclable plastics and the ability to completely disassemble the internal components. The three R’s—repair, refurbish, recycle—are key to our business sustainability practices.

When customers are ready to upgrade their lockbox, they can feel good knowing that SentriLock often refurbishes old lockboxes for a second life in other markets. Lockboxes that can’t be refurbished are either harvested for repair parts or sent to a recycler for recovery of their reusable materials.

Has user demand played a role in driving sustainability?

Our customers have shared that our recycling program is a key differentiator in the lockbox market and is of growing importance to their business values. They recognize there isn’t one silver bullet to addressing climate change; it’s going to take looking at everything.

How do you plan to improve on what you’re doing?

We’re striving for a future where we can build new lockboxes from recovered components and significantly reduce the need for raw materials and the energy needed to produce them. A pleasant side benefit is keeping pricing in check in a world where material costs are rising rapidly.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Partnering with Food Recovery Network, NAR fights hunger by minimizing food waste at meetings.

Sustainability isn’t just about ensuring the future. Reducing waste can serve the needs of others in the here and now. A case in point: the REALTOR® organization’s partnership with the Food Recovery Network(link is external). The nonprofit recovers unserved, perishable food from meetings and events for use by local hunger-fighting groups. Since 2019, the National Association of REALTORS® and participating state and local associations have donated nearly 5,000 meals.

One food recovery participant, the Kansas Association of REALTORS®, was able to recover and donate 130 pounds of surplus food from its 2022 legislative conference in February, “equivalent to 108 meals,” says Jennifer Wright, KAR’s director of member engagement.

To amplify the effort, KAR held a companion food drive with Harvesters Community Food Network, a Kansas food bank. “We placed bins throughout the conference, and far exceeded our goals,” Wright says. “Some members teamed up and went on a shopping trip to make a larger donation together. It was competitive and fun.” The food drive brought in 1,055 pounds of food, or 879 meals, she says.

Last year, NAR’s research team shined a light on the link between housing costs and food insecurity. The Affordable Housing and Food Insecurity Report relied on data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey for June 23 to July 5, 2021(link is external). In it, 46% of households reported difficulty paying for the usual household expenses over the past 7 days; 8.1 million households said they sometimes or often didn’t have enough food, and 6.6 million said they weren’t current on their mortgage or rent.

“No one should have to choose between putting food on their family’s table and putting a roof over their heads,” says NAR CEO Bob Goldberg. “We’re proud of our ongoing partnership with the Food Recovery Network, which does such wonderful work fighting hunger in America, as we continue to pursue policies that will generate more affordable and accessible housing options in communities everywhere.”

Want to get involved in food recovery? Talk to your brokerage and your association about implementing a plan with FRN. Get more information, including a link to donate, at nar.realtor/frn.

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Kama Burton provides a safe space for troubled youth in California to express themselves, build camaraderie and chart a more positive path forward in life.

Kama Burton heard that girls were getting into fights at school. The fights were so frequent that they disrupted the school day for most of the students, many of whom came from low-income backgrounds. Some were foster kids; others were caregivers to younger siblings while their parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.

School should be a safe haven, thought Burton, AHWD, SFR, C2EX, broker-owner of CMB Realty Services in Moreno Valley, Calif. So, she launched Girls Club through her nonprofit, Loving Me 1st(link is external), to give young girls a safe space to express themselves and connect with each other. Time to themselves without stressful obligations helps them to regroup and consider what they want for their lives, Burton says. She uses inspirational speakers and relationship-building exercises to help instill a sense of self-worth and confidence in Girls Club participants.

“[School] principals found that the number of [violent incidents] decreased, which allowed all students to attend school stress-free,” Burton says of the impact of her program on the community. She adds that Girls Club helps youth “become more aware of who they are” and realize their potential.

Since its inception in 2015, Girls Club has expanded to serve 15 area schools and girls in fourth through 12th grades. It’s also grown in its offerings from an in-school session to conferences, learning sessions and field trips. The events are free for the girls to attend. “This year, we had our 1st Annual Entrepreneurship Conference and our 7th Annual Girls Conference,” Burton says. The theme of this year’s Girls Conference, which drew 225 young participants and their families, was “I Matter.”

Ultimately, Girls Club aims to give a dose of confidence to girls who don’t necessarily realize their potential or what’s possible for them. They need a helping hand from someone who cares and sees their worth, Burton says. She’s seen participants stop fighting with each other and set their sights on helping each other create brighter futures for themselves. Her proudest moment, Burton says, is watching young members of the club grow and go off to college.

Learn more about Burton and other REALTORS® who are doing extraordinary things to give back to their communities on the REALTORS® Are Good Neighbors Facebook page(link is external).

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Ken Richardson brings at-risk youth off the streets and into local gyms to teach them martial arts—and help them turn away from gang violence.

When he was a teenager in 1981, Ken Richardson’s younger brother was shot and killed in gang violence. Coming from an abusive home, Richardson and his siblings grew up on the streets of Baltimore and often confronted dangerous situations, he explains. After the murder, “I realized that I had to do something to get the kids to put down their weapons,” says Richardson, a sales associate with Realty One Group Nest in North Andover, Mass.

For the last 30 years, Richardson has partnered with local clubs and youth centers to provide a place where he can bring at-risk youth in off the streets and teach them martial arts. While teaching self-defense skills and street smarts, Richardson also aims to inspire kids to turn away from a life of violence. His own backstory is a powerful way to connect. He’s launched No Weapon Needed(link is external), a program in partnership with Haverhill Inner City Boxing & Youth Development, a nonprofit gym, to provide not only self-defense classes but also mentorship and education opportunities for youth. Free tutoring is part of Richardson’s program.

“We want to instill in our boxers the idea that hard work, determination, generosity and, most importantly, education are not only essential to becoming a successful boxer but important to becoming a well-rounded, successful adult,” Richardson says. “Every kid is one adult away from a success story.” He adds that his mission is to be a leader and innovator in gun violence prevention and to improve the lives of young people from underprivileged communities.

Richardson not only provides self-defense classes but also has paid out of his own pocket for improvements to the facility for the Haverhill Inner City Boxing Club. He estimates that he has spent more than $100,000 on gym memberships for kids, gym equipment and even meals for the youth he serves, who typically come from poor backgrounds. “No Weapon Needed gives youth a place to go where they are socially accepted and wanted,” he says. “We are helping youth develop mentally, physically and spiritually, strengthening families and improving our community.”

To learn more about Richardson and other REALTORS® who are making extraordinary contributions to their communities and beyond, visit the REALTORS® Are Good Neighbors Facebook page(link is external).

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

David Wluka has brought back to life the history of Nowy Dwór, a Polish village that was decimated by Nazis in World War II. Now he’s helping to teach local schoolchildren to honor the Jewish legacy of their area—which they never knew about.

In the mid-Eastern region of Poland sits a lush, small town known as Nowy Dwór. From the early 17th century to World War II, Nowy Dwór was home to a thriving Jewish community of about 4,000, where REALTOR® David Wluka’s father—a Holocaust survivor—was born. The German occupation of Nowy Dwór began in 1939, and by the end of the war in 1945, nearly every resident had been killed.

In the late 1980s, Wluka, broker-owner of Wluka Real Estate Corp. in the Boston suburb of Sharon, Mass., traveled with his dad, Icek, to the Auschwitz concentration camp near Icek’s former hometown. It was the first time Icek had returned to the area since escaping with his life, and Wluka didn’t want him to make the journey alone. They then went to Nowy Dwór, where Icek had hoped to show Wluka what his life was like before the Holocaust. But when they arrived, all traces of Jewish life—the synagogue, Icek’s childhood home and the local cemetery—had vanished.

Wluka and his father made a pact to resurrect the cemetery and ensure the once-thriving Jewish community that resided in Nowy Dwór was remembered for generations to come. However, Icek passed away before the memorial became a reality, and it took a significant amount of time for the project to come to fruition. In the early 2000s, Wluka crossed paths with a man named Ze’ev Shaked, whose father ran a blacksmith shop with Icek. Inspired and filled with purpose, Wluka and Shaked teamed up and pressed on to restore the Jewish cemetery and build a memorial.

Over time as he worked on the project, Wluka learned that Nowy Dwór’s modern residents had never met a Jewish person and didn’t know the town’s rich Jewish history. The more he learned, the more he realized that education in conjunction with memorialization was necessary to truly honor Nowy Dwór. He wanted the memorial to serve not only as a historical marker but also a source of information and agent for change. To make that happen, Wluka says, the town’s children needed to be involved. “We worked with the Nowy Dwór schools, who took an interest in the project from the beginning,” he says.

Wluka and his partners on the memorial devised an essay contest in which school-age children write on the topic of racial tolerance after learning about the Jewish heritage in Nowy Dwór. Teachers also have access to the memorial as a teaching tool. The contest has been so impactful in the local schools that interest in participation spread to Mazowieki, the county where Nowy Dwór is located.

Today, the memorial is an integral part of the Nowy Dwór community. Working with local community members and leaders, Wluka and Shaked were able to ensure that the cemetery and memorial are cared for in perpetuity. In the U.S., Wluka speaks of the project and its significance to any local school interested in learning more, one of which was his alma mater, Boston University. Most recently, he spoke to students at Pope Francis Prep in Springfield, Mass. He also worked with his Israeli cousin, Zvi Plachinski, to send 100 students to Nowy Dwór to learn and live with other local students. The more children involved in the project, Wluka says, the better. And he hopes its influence keeps growing.

Current political unrest and violence worldwide, Wluka says, makes the Nowy Dwór memorial of utmost importance. “As a child of Holocaust survivors and a student of the Holocaust, I see conditions similar to what things were like in Germany in the 1930s. Racism, nationalism, fascism and worse are growing exponentially.”

However, children give him hope. “My outreach for change focuses on kids; they are the only means to effect it permanently,” Wluka says. “I believe that only the young will be able to bring us back to a sane world.”

To learn more about Wluka and other REALTORS® who are making extraordinary contributions to their communities and beyond, visit the REALTORS® Are Good Neighbors Facebook page(link is external).

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Arizona agent Barbara Guy leads House of Refuge, a transitional housing facility, to get more people off the street and into a home.

When Barbara Guy was growing up in Phoenix, her grandparents owned a motel in a poor neighborhood. Most of the motel’s guests were long-term residents. “That was affordable housing,” says Guy, SRES, a sales associate with ProSmart Realty in Gilbert, Ariz. “Most of the people who lived there were sharecroppers or laborers. It was a melting pot: elderly, Filipino, Hispanic, Arab.”

Sometimes, the residents wouldn’t be able to pay monthly rent. So, Guy’s grandmother would accept fresh produce in lieu of money—and then, she’d chop it all up and cook a feast for everyone at the motel to enjoy. That memory still motivates Guy in her efforts to help her community today. “That’s my ‘why,’” she says. “This is why I serve.”

Since 2019, Guy has played a leadership role with House of Refuge(link is external), a nonprofit providing transitional housing and social services like job training to homeless families. The organization, which launched in 1996, has acquired 88 two-bedroom homes for the families it serves as well as a church and annexed office building for its operations. House of Refuge offers an initial one-year stay for families who qualify for its program, helping 1,060 people in 2021 alone.

Guy, who is chair of the board for House of Refuge, says its services, which include onsite learning and recreational activities for children, are especially important as affordability in the real estate market plummets. “Rents continue to increase, and a living wage is very difficult right now,” she says. “Our residents find themselves in situations where they’re just not able to make ends meet. If we had 200 more houses, we could fill them all. The need is so prevalent.”

Kayla Kolar, president and CEO of House of Refuge, says Guy is helping the nonprofit recruit volunteers and board members that bring an array of perspectives to the issue of solving homelessness. Guy even converted a former House of Refuge resident into a board member. “Her leadership also provides oversight to board governance, policymaking and fundraising that, in turn, helps the homeless families we serve,” Kolar says.

Guy says she’s now focusing on the future for House of Refuge and how to expand its offerings. “What’s next for the parents and for the kids? How do we lift them up and create opportunity? Vocational school? College? How do we make that space for them? These are our big dreams to empower them to stop the cycle of homelessness.”

To learn more about Guy and other REALTORS® who are making extraordinary contributions to their communities and beyond, visit the REALTORS® Are Good Neighbors Facebook page(link is external).

National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission