by Shane Henson — March 13, 2013—Throughout the world, green buildings have continually proven that they are well worth the investment—for building occupants, the environment, and the pocketbooks of companies who have the foresight enough to build them, finds a recently published report from McGraw-Hill Construction’s.
Developed in partnership with United Technologies Corp. (UTC), the report, World Green Building Trends: Business Benefits Driving New and Retrofit Market Opportunities in Over 60 Countries, is based on a study of global green building trends and aims to discern drivers of the green building marketplace.
According to the study, firms are shifting their business toward green building, with 51% of respondents planning more than 60% of their work to be green by 2015. This is a significant increase from the 28% that said the same for their work in 2013 and double the 13% in 2008.
This growth is not a trend localized to one country or region. McGraw-Hill Construction estimates that from 2012 to 2015, the number of firms anticipating that more than 60% of their work will be green will more than triple in South Africa and double in Germany, Norway and Brazil.
The key driver to going green, according to the survey, is that now green building is a business imperative around the world. In the 2008 report, McGraw-Hill Construction found that the top driver for green building was “doing the right thing.” However, in 2012, business drivers such as client and market demand are the key factors influencing the market, the company says.
“The acceleration of the green building marketplace around the world is creating markets for green building products and technologies, which in turn will lead to faster growth of green building,” said Harvey Bernstein, vice president of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction. “And the fact that green is growing in all parts of the world indicates that there are market opportunities in both established markets as well as developing countries.”
These opportunities are mapping against expected benefits: More than one-third point to higher building values (38%), quality assurance (38%), and future-proofing assets (i.e., protecting against future demands) (36%), says McGraw-Hill Construction.
The study further found that global industry professionals have high expectations of the operating cost benefits of green building—19% believe their operating costs will decrease by 15% or more over the next year (51% believe there will be increases of 6% or more), and 39% believe they will see savings of 15% or more over the next five years (67% expect savings of 6% or more).
