Green Building Creates Green Jobs that Save Energy and Money
Even as the ominous financial news continued to dominate year-end headlines, a cascade of newly released studies and reports pointed to green building as one of the growing bright spots for the U.S. economy.
In fact, as economic experts call for a recovery plan focused on green jobs and infrastructure, as consumers look to live in more economically sustainable homes, as businesses strive to cut operating costs, and as our national security needs depend on an end to reliance on foreign energy sources, green buildings’ ability to deliver solutions to these pressing challenges promises to change the way we view the building industry.
“As research comes in from diverse sources examining the interest in green buildings among a wide range of Americans, the numbers keep painting the same picture: The future of our built environment clearly centres on energy efficiency, water reduction, systems that encourage cleaner indoor air, the use of recycled and more sustainably developed materials, and communities that coexist with their environments,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “Over and over again, Americans are saying the same thing: The key to a prosperous future is sustainability, and the triple bottom line – environmental responsibility, economic prosperity and social equity – is imperative as we move forward.”
According to Turner Construction Company’s “Green Building Barometer,” 75 per cent of commercial real estate executives – including developers, rental building owners, brokers, architects, engineers and others – say the credit crunch will not discourage them from building green. In fact, 83 per cent said they would be “extremely” or “very” likely to seek LEED certification for buildings they are planning to build within the next three years. The U.S. Green Building Council’s nationally recognised LEED® green building certification program provides third-party review and certification of buildings’ design, construction and performance in five key areas of environmental and health concern, including energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials and resources use, sustainable site development and indoor air quality.
Other key findings from this and other studies, conducted over the past year among constituencies ranging from consumers and homeowners to commercial real estate executives, include:
• 70 per cent of home buyers are more or much more inclined to buy a green home over a conventional home in a down housing market, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2008 Smart Market Report, “The Green Home Consumer.”
• More than 80 per cent of commercial building owners have allocated funds to green initiatives in the year 2008, according to “2008 Green Survey: Existing Buildings,” a survey jointly funded by Incisive Media’s Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Some 45 per cent plan to increase sustainability investments in 2009.
• That same study showed that 60 per cent of commercial building owners offer education programs to assist tenants in implementing green programs in their space, up 49.4 per cent from last year, illustrating a growing understanding of the importance of environmental awareness among employees and customers in addition to the use of green materials and systems.
• LEED-certified projects are directly tied to more than USD10 billion of green materials, according to a Greener World Media study on green building. That could reach more than USD100 billion by 2020, contributing to a vibrant industry that could drive an economic recovery.
• The Centre for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a September 2008 study, found that a national green economic recovery program investing USD100 billion over 10 years in six infrastructure areas would create 2 million new jobs. The investments would include retrofitting existing buildings to improve energy efficiency and investing in wind power, solar power and next-generation biofuels.
Incisive Media’s “2008 Green Survey: Existing Buildings” found that almost 70 per cent of commercial building owners have already implemented some kind of energy monitoring system. Energy conservation is the most widely implemented green program in commercial buildings, the survey found, followed by recycling and water conservation. Nearly 65 per cent of building owners who have implemented green buildings say their investments have already resulted in a positive return on investment. And 84 per cent of respondents to Turner’s “Green Building Barometer” said their green buildings have resulted in lower energy costs, with 68 per cent reporting lower overall operating costs.
Building and design professionals, product manufacturers and others getting involved in green building are establishing themselves as leaders in a rapidly growing industry, McGraw-Hill Construction’s Green Outlook 2009 report “Trends Driving Change” shows. By 2013, the overall green building market (both residential and non-residential) is likely to be more than double from today's statistics. Green building is estimated to be 10-12 per cent of the current market; McGraw-Hill predicts it will represent 20-25 per cent of new commercial and institutional construction starts by 2013. And it’s possible these predictions could be conservative: In 2005, McGraw-Hill predicted green building would make up just 5-10 per cent of the market in 2008.
