F E AT U R E
Jeremy Susac seeks a sustainable future for construction and Florida By Jacob Ogles
72
|
INFLUENCE Fall 2023
I
n a state where development still dominates politics, few names carry the weight of Lennar Homes. A national homebuilder based in Miami since its founding in 1954, Lennar now builds housing in 26 states. But Florida remains its corporate home. The public company operates in 12 separate Florida markets, more than in any other state. In Tallahassee, Jeremy Susac has long served as the voice of the homebuilder when it comes to policy. Since 2015, Susac held the title of Vice President of Government Affairs for Lennar Ventures and the Lennar Corporation. In that time, he helped craft laws in Florida and across the country. Through his work, Susac lobbied for business-friendly policies that keep the trusses rising across Florida, but also worked to establish energy-efficient policies that preserve the state’s resources. “We’ve created pretty transformative standards,” Susac said. Among the most notable wins on Susac’s watch, Lennar played an outsized role in drafting a reclaimed water bill in Florida in 2021. The state statute requires domestic wastewater utilities that dispose of effluent, reclaimed water or reuse water by surface water discharge to submit a five-year plan to eliminate such disposal methods to the Department of Environmental Protection. But it also incentivizes using that graywater for residential uses like washing machines. The idea is that by pressing installation of more filtering systems in homes, less potable water will end up being used where graywater will do. It was widely seen as a rare win for construction and conservation. Susac called the change “transformative” for making environmentally sound practices economically feasible not just for major builders like Lennar, but for the whole industry.