Green building and sustainability consultant Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED Fellow, has released his annual list of “Top 10 Megatrends” for the green building industry.
Yudelson, a Contributing Editor to Building Design+Construction, says, “It looks like a good year ahead for the green building industry. Based on our experience, it seems clear that green building will continue its rapid expansion globally in 2013 in spite of the ongoing economic slowdown in most countries of Europe and North America. More people are building green each year, with 50,000 LEED projects underway by the latest counts; there is nothing on the horizon that will stop this Mega-trend or its constituent elements.”
Yudelson’s “Top Ten Green Building MegaTrends” for 2013 include:
1. Green building in North America will rebound strongly in 2013, in terms of LEED project registrations. Yudelson says, “Even with commercial and governmental projects proceeding at a lower level, there should be faster growth in green retrofits, with surging college and university projects, along with NGO activity.”
2. The focus of the green building industry will continue its switch from new building design and construction to greening existing buildings. The fastest growing LEED rating system the past three years has been LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M), with cumulative floor area in these certified projects now greater than in new construction. Jerry Yudelson’s green building book,Greening Existing Buildings, documents the strategic and tactical components of this trend.
3. Green Buildings will increasingly be managed in the “Cloud,” represented by the large number of new entrants and new products in fields of building automation, facility management, wireless controls and building services information management in 2011 and 2012. Yudelson says, “2013 could well become 'The Year of the Cloud' for how quickly this trend will manifest.”
4. Awareness of the coming crisis in fresh water supply, both globally and in the U.S., will increase. Leading building designers, owners and managers will be moved to take further steps to reduce water consumption in buildings by using more conserving fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new onsite water technologies. Jerry’s recent water conservation book, Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis, shows how this is being done in green buildings all over the developed world.
5. The global green building movement will continue to accelerate, as more countries begin to create their own green building incentives and developing their own Green Building Councils. Nearly 90 countries with incipient or established green building organizations, on all continents, will drive considerable global green building growth in 2013. At the end of 2012, 40 percent of all LEED-registered projects were located outside the U.S. LEED projects are now being pursued in more than 130 countries, with LEED’s “Alternative Compliance Path” serving to facilitate the process.
6. Zero-net-energy buildings will become increasingly commonplace, in both residential and commercial sectors, as LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications and labels have become too commonplace to confer competitive advantage among building owners. Developers of speculative commercial buildings will also begin to showcase Zero Net Energy designs, to gain marketplace advantages.
7. Green Building Performance Disclosure will be the fastest emerging trend, highlighted by new carbon reductions requirements in California (AB 32), the City of Seattle and many other jurisdictions. Commercial building owners will have to disclose actual green building performance to all new tenants and buyers and in some places, to the public at large.
8. Transparency and “Red List” chemicals will become increasingly a subject of contention, as manifested through such tools as the new Health Product Declaration and the inclusion of points for avoiding certain chemicals contained in LEEDv4, currently scheduled for release in June 2013. Environmental and Health Product Declarations will begin to appear in large numbers in the next 2-3 years, as building product manufacturers increasingly try to gain or maintain market share based on open disclosure of chemical ingredients.
9. Local and state governments will step up their mandates for green buildings for both themselves and the private sector. There should be at least 20 new cities of significant size with commercial sector green building mandates, mostly in the “Blue” states. The desire to reduce carbon emissions by going green will lead more government agencies, universities, hospitals and corporate owners to require green buildings from design and construction teams.
10. Solar power use in buildings will continue to grow, given the prospect of increasing focus on implementing aggressive state-level renewable power standards (RPS) for 2020 and the move toward zero-net-energy buildings. As before, third-party financing partnerships will continue to grow and provide capital for large rooftop systems on warehouses and retail stores, as well as on homes.
About Jerry Yudelson
Jerry Yudelson is founder and lead consultant of Yudelson Associates, a leading international sustainability and green building consultancy. Yudelson, a LEED Fellow, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s leading green building consultants and sustainability experts. He is the author of 13 green building books and chaired the country’s largest annual green building conference, Greenbuild, for six years. For more information please contact Jerry Yudelson, +1-520-243-0996, or visit http://www.greenbuildconsult.com.
Related Stories
| Jan 15, 2012
Hollister Construction Services oversees interior office fit-out for Harding Loevner
The work includes constructing open space areas, new conference, trading and training rooms, along with multiple kitchenettes.
| Jan 12, 2012
3M takes part in Better Buildings Challenge
As a partner in the challenge, 3M has committed to reduce energy use by 25% in 78 of its plants, encompassing nearly 38 million-sf of building space.
| Jan 9, 2012
METALCON International 2012 announced
METALCON 2012 is scheduled for Oct. 9-11 at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center, Hall A, Rosemont, Ill.
| Jan 6, 2012
New Walgreen's represents an architectural departure
The structure's exterior is a major departure from the corporate image of a traditional Walgreens design.
| Jan 4, 2012
New LEED Silver complex provides space for education and research
The academic-style facility supports education/training and research functions, and contains classrooms, auditoriums, laboratories, administrative offices and library facilities, as well as spaces for operating highly sophisticated training equipment.
| Jan 3, 2012
BIM: not just for new buildings
Ohio State University Medical Center is converting 55 Medical Center buildings from AutoCAD to BIM to improve quality and speed of decision making related to facility use, renovations, maintenance, and more.
| Jan 3, 2012
New SJI Rule on Steel Joists
A new rule from the Steel Joist Institute clarifies when local reinforcement of joists is required for chord loads away from panel points. SJI members offer guidance about how and when to specify loads.
| Jan 3, 2012
AIA Course: New Developments in Concrete Construction
Earn 1.0 AIA/CES learning units by studying this article and successfully completing the online exam.
| Dec 27, 2011
Ground broken for adaptive reuse project
Located on the Garden State Parkway, the master-planned project initially includes the conversion of a 114-year-old, 365,000-square-foot, six-story warehouse building into 361 loft-style apartments, and the creation of a three-level parking facility.
| Dec 27, 2011
Nova completes $60M Clearwater Conference Center
Comprising an entire city block, the 450,000 sq. ft. facility features over 400 meeting rooms, six theaters, a full-service health spa, complete with an indoor running track, and a commercial kitchen that can efficiently accommodate over 1,000 diners