by Shane Henson — November 23, 2012—Findings from a new survey conducted by Turner Construction Company, a leading general builder and one of the largest green builders in the United States, indicate that companies remain committed to constructing environmentally sustainable buildings, although a slightly smaller percentage say they will be seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Approximately 718 executives, including real estate owners, developers, and corporate owner-occupants, were surveyed for the Green Building Market Barometer 2012. According to the survey, 90% of respondents said their companies were committed to environmentally sustainable practices. Of that percentage, 56% of executives said their companies were extremely or very committed to following environmentally sustainable practices in their operations, while an additional 34% said they were somewhat committed. In addition to citing financial reasons for this commitment, executives were most likely to cite broader considerations as extremely or very important, including the belief that it is the “right thing to do,” (68%), impact on brand/reputation (67%), and customer requirements (61%), along with cost savings (66%).
Reducing energy costs and operating expenses are the key drivers to green construction, the survey found. Executives were most likely to cite financial factors as being important to their companies’ decisions on whether to incorporate green features in a construction project. Respondents indicated that energy efficiency (84%) and ongoing operations and maintenance costs (84%) were extremely or very important to their decisions.
More than two-thirds of executives also said that nonfinancial factors were extremely or very important, including indoor air quality (74%), health and well-being of occupants (74%), satisfaction of employees/occupants (69%) and employee productivity (67%). However, only 37% of executives said it was extremely or very important to their companies to minimize the carbon footprint of their buildings.
This suggests that the decision to incorporate green features is driven by a desire to reduce cost followed by an interest to improve the indoor environment for building occupants, rather than broader concerns about the impact of buildings on the global environment, says Turner Construction.
Although the vast majority of companies remain committed to green buildings, the percentage of executives who thought it was extremely or very likely that their company would seek LEED certification if they constructed a green building was only 48%, down from 53% in the 2010 survey and 61% in the 2008 survey. LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven program that provides third-party verification of green buildings. Among executives who said their companies were not likely to seek LEED certification, the most important reasons cited were the cost of the certification process (82%), staff time required (79%), time required for the process (75%), and the overall perceived difficulty of the process (7%).
Turner Construction says that according to the survey, it is apparent that in the last four years many companies seem to have become more knowledgeable about the means and methods of designing and constructing green buildings and are less reliant on LEED as a checklist or a scorecard. This is indicated by the fact that 52% of executives who are not likely to seek LEED certification would prefer to use their own company’s green building standards. At the same time, 41% of executives thought it was at least somewhat likely that their companies would consider seeking certification under a rating system other than LEED if they constructed a green building.
