China claims top ranking outside of U.S. for total LEED-certified space
By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
China moved from second to first place in rankings of countries with the most LEED-certified space outside of the United States.
China has 34.62 million gross square meters (GSM) of certified LEED space. Canada, India, Brazil, and the Republic of Korea rounded out the top five nations on the list.
Global green building is expected to double every three years, according to a Dodge Data & Analytics World Green Building Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report. The report was conducted in 70 countries, and it found that emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil will be engines of green growth, with development varying from two-fold to six-fold over current green building levels.
Increased consumer demand has also pushed the world’s green building market to a trillion-dollar industry. As a result of growing demand for sustainable construction, the green building materials market is expected to reach $234 billion by 2019.