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
Codes and Standards | Nov 13, 2019
Heat pumps, strategic energy management could be next major focuses for efficiency
After lighting, efficiency experts look to new opportunities to boost energy efficiency.
Codes and Standards | Nov 12, 2019
National Infrastructure Performance Council to address ‘national security crisis’
Coalition wants to double annual level of infrastructure investment.
Codes and Standards | Nov 11, 2019
Major cities are adopting new building performance standards
Initiatives can include multiple standards.
Codes and Standards | Nov 11, 2019
U.S. hotel construction pipeline continues its year-over-year growth
In its eighth consecutive quarter of growth, projects currently under construction stand at 1,729 projects/235,278 rooms.
Codes and Standards | Nov 11, 2019
New retrofit design guide for metal roofing published
Metal Construction Association document provides best practices for re-roofing with metal.
Codes and Standards | Nov 8, 2019
New York City among the top hotel construction pipelines in the United States
Hotels presently under construction are at 102 projects/17,504 rooms.
Codes and Standards | Nov 7, 2019
Group focused on using AI for construction safety gains key members
Major contractors join partnership to share data to predict hazards, incidents.
Codes and Standards | Nov 6, 2019
Undisclosed ICC agreement with NAHB alleged to thwart more stringent efficiency codes
Homebuilders’ seats on ICC made it easier to block new provisions, report alleges.
Codes and Standards | Nov 4, 2019
ASHRAE releases new version of energy efficiency standard for buildings
Standard 90.1 includes revisions of envelope, lighting, HVAC provisions.
Codes and Standards | Nov 1, 2019
Resiliency of a community’s housing stock can be measured according to new benchmark
Metric can help municipalities prepare for disasters.