The Implications of the Growth of Green Buildings

This video by the Washington State Department of Ecology provides a good overview of the effects of green building.

Despite the tough economic times, a 2009 survey conducted by National Real Estate Investor in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council showed that sustainability in commercial real estate grew at a prodigious rate.

More than 88% of developers and 86% of corporate executives say they consider green design to be as or more important than it was before the current economic slump. In fact, LEED certified projects showed an impressive 47% increase over the previous 12 month period.

These buildings represent 273 million square feet of new construction and major renovation on commercial and institutional properties, up from 133 million square feet the previous year. Another 25,608 properties totaling approximately 6.3 billion square feet are currently registered with the LEED, up from 1.3 billion square feet last year.

Green buildings are an increasingly powerful economic driver. By 2013, the green building industry is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product.

Compared to conventional buildings, green buildings involve significant changes in design, construction, operation and maintenance. These changes have far reaching implications that help reduce environmental degradation and provide green jobs.
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Top 10 Green Building Trends for 2010

Green buildings are more energy efficient and provide greater value then traditional homes. The appeal of sustainable housing was highlighted in the 2009 McGraw Hill Construction report on the Green Home Consumer, which shows that green homes are generally secure from price erosion. Although 2009 was a slow year, green building bucked the trend by posting substantial growth.

At the beginning of the year, the Earth Advantage Institute, a leading nonprofit green building resource that has certified more than 11,000 sustainable homes, published its top ten green building trends in 2010.

1. Custom and web-based display panels that show real-time home energy use, and even real-time energy use by individual appliances.

2. More accurate energy rating systems for homes and office spaces has caught the attention of energy agencies and legislators around the country.

3. Building information modeling (BIM) software, (the continued evolution of CAD software for building design) has produced new add-on tools with increasingly accurate algorithms for energy modeling as well as embedded energy properties for many materials and features. This will prove instrumental in predicting building performance. BIM developers will soon be offering more affordable packages aimed at smaller firms and individual builders.

4. Lenders and insurers have come to see green homes and buildings as better for their bottom line and are working to get new reduced-rate loan products, insurance packages, and metrics into place. Lenders and insurers are realizing green home and building owners are more responsible, place higher value on maintenance and lower operating costs, and are less likely to default.

5. "Rightsizing" of homes due to the understanding that a larger home no longer translates into greater equity. Energy prices are expected to rise over time and this makes smaller more energy efficient homes a better value.

6. Eco-districts that encourage the creation of low-impact communities where residents have access to most services and supplies within walking or biking distance.

7. Water conservation to reduce residential water use which accounts for more than half of the publicly supplied water in the US. The EPA's voluntary WaterSense specification for new homes reduces water use by about 20 percent compared to a conventional new home. Water is an essential resource and water scarcity is a growing problem.

8. Documenting, measuring, and reducing greenhouse gas creation in building materials and processes. Carbon Calculation for buildings that can help homeowners reduce their carbon emissions (homes account for approximately half of the carbon emitted into the atmosphere).

9. Net zero buildings generate more energy than it uses over the course of a year, as a result of relatively small size, extreme efficiencies and onsite renewable energy sources.

10. Sustainable building education will supply new learning opportunities, not just for designers and builders, but for the entire chain of professionals involved in the building industry, from real estate to finance, and insurance.
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The Green Building Focus Conference and Expo

Education was the focus of the 2010 Green Building Focus Conference and Expo. The event was a showcase for the latest in sustainable building development.

The Green Building Focus was held between August 24th and 27th, and hosted by the city of Birmingham, Alabama. The city of Birmingham is the largest construction hub in the Southeast, and it is quickly becoming the region’s hub for green building activity as well.

With the growing demand for green building, this year’s conference sought to inform and educate the region’s architects, engineers, home owners, construction professionals, faculty and students.

The Green Building Focus explored recent trends, technologies and materials available in the green building movement. The conference also addressed topics including, “The Greening of Corporate America,” “Private and Federal Incentives for Green Projects,” and “International Green Construction Code.”

There were workshops and a business expo with more than 150 vendors showcasing environmentally friendly products and services and featuring some of the world's leading authorities on sustainable development.

Speakers included Karan Grover, an internationally acclaimed architect and winner of the 2004 USGBC platinum award for greenest building on Earth. Another conference speaker, Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos said, "It takes leadership from the top all the way down to the public buying into it."

Despite the challenges reviewed by Mayor Petelos, the Green Building Focus was a window into the innovations that are driving the growth of green homes.
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