The U.S Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) 2021 World Green Building Trends report shows that building industry firms are looking to make the construction of net-zero/net-positive buildings a top priority.
“This reflects the recognition that only by making the built environment carbon-neutral can the goal to minimize the impacts of climate change be achieved,” according to a USGBC news release. More than 1,200 industry professionals, including engineers, architects/designers, contractors, owners, developers, inventors, and consultants around the world responded to the survey.
The findings also demonstrate a compelling business case for building green. The average reduction in operating costs for the first 12 months in a new green building is 10.5%, and five-year cost savings are 16.9%, according to survey results.
Other findings include:
· The pandemic impacted the green building sector with many respondents saying that messaging about increasing filtered air exchange in buildings directly influenced their choice of HVAC system, and social distancing standards affected building design.
· More than half of those that work on a majority of green projects plan to incorporate resilience strategies into their projects in the next five years.
· Most respondents (82%) are at least aware of the concept of embodied carbon – emissions from manufacture, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials – with contractors and owners less familiar than architects and engineers. The majority (79%) of those building green use at least one metric to track green building performance, an increase of five points since 2018.
· About half of respondents engage in green renovation/retrofit projects, with most investors engaged in this work.
Related Stories
| Nov 9, 2012
Higher bar on LEED may not be harder to reach
The U.S. Green Building Council expects to substantially revise LEED next year, requiring builders beginning in 2015 to take new and more-detailed steps to get buildings certified.
| Nov 9, 2012
CSI’s sustainability practice group offers webinar on EPA's WaterSense Program
The Construction Specification Institute’s sustainability practice group is offering a webinar Nov. 20 on EPA’s WaterSense Program, featuring Lynn Gilleland, drinking water specialist with EPA’s New England office.
| Nov 9, 2012
Mayor in Calif. wants to expedite permits for $1B worth of projects
The mayor of San Jose, Calif., plans to issue new construction permits worth an estimated $1 billion in the next six months to spur job creation and create revenue for the city.
| Nov 9, 2012
Jury awards N.Y. roofer $2 million for injuries after construction site fall
A roofing worker from Cortland County, N.Y., has been awarded $2 million in damages due to the injuries he sustained from a 60-foot fall at a dormitory construction site.
| Oct 31, 2012
Investigators look into crane severely damaged by Sandy in Manhattan
Investigators are examining a construction crane collapse atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan due to high winds during Hurricane Sandy.
| Oct 31, 2012
Construction error suspected in Miami-Dade College garage collapse
A construction error is the chief suspect in the partial collapse of a parking garage at Miami-Dade College in Doral, FL.
| Oct 31, 2012
New European laws on timber will go into effect in March 2013
A new European Union timber regulation prohibits the “placing on the market of illegally harvested timber or timber products derived from such timber.”
| Oct 31, 2012
MIT models show roofs' capacity for solar energy in Cambridge, Mass.
A new mapping tool from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Boston design firm can calculate rooftops' capacity for solar energy.
| Oct 31, 2012
Demand for living roofs, walls to reach $7.7 billion by 2017
The demand for green roofs and living walls is expected to climb from $5.3 billion in 2011 to $7.7 billion in 2017, according to a report from Lux Research.
