Green building activity around the world is doubling every three years, and the growth is most powerful in developing economies, according to a forthcoming report by Dodge Data & Analytics.
The preliminary results were unveiled earlier this month at the Greenbuild International conference in Washington, DC, hosted by the U.S. Green Building Council. If the trend continues, it implies a quadrupling every six years and an octupling every nine.
“Across all regions studied, respondents increasingly projected that more than 60% of their projects would be green projects by 2018, with a doubling from current projects across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, South America, and Sub-Saharan Africa,” CleanTechnica reports. “The largest percentage of green building activity continues to be in the commercial building segment, comprising 46% of respondents’ future green building projects.” But “activity in institutional buildings—schools, hospitals and public building—is expected to surpass green building projects in existing buildings (38 and 37% respectively) by 2018.”
Surging demand for green buildings is being driven by client demand and higher awareness of occupant and tenant benefits, Dillough writes. The survey of more than 1,000 architects, engineers, contractors, owners, specialists, and consultants in 69 countries found that 68% of respondents saw green buildings as a way to promote sustainable business practices, 84% were interested in reducing energy consumption, and 76% were concerned about cutting water use.
“These results reinforce what those in the green building industry already know,” said John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer at UTC Climate, Controls & Security, the United Technologies company that funded the report. “Green buildings are better for the environment, better for business, and better for the people within them.”
