Green building is a nice thing. It might even be the right thing for developers. But is it profitable?
A new report says that it’s getting there.
United Technologies — the company that makes Carrier air conditioners and Otis elevators — teamed with McGraw Hill Construction to release their latest green building report, “World Green Building Trends.” The Feb. 28 report, which includes responses from more than 800 architects, engineers, building owners and contractors, says that green building is steadily becoming more profitable.
Here’s the key finding: 76 percent of respondents said that green building lowers the operating costs of buildings. That can benefit the bottom line of building owners concerned with how much energy their buildings consume.
Also, 38 percent of respondents said that green building boosts the values of these buildings.
At the same time, more clients are demanding that their developers use green-building techniques when building their department stores, hotels, office buildings and apartment complexes, according to the report. Because of this, survey participants said that practicing green building techniques is becoming a necessity to winning construction jobs. That’s because building owners now that they’ll attract more tenants — and their rents — when their buildings are green.
Not surprisingly, more developers, builders and architects now expect a greater percentage of their work to fall into the green category. The survey found that 51 percent of respondents expect that more than 60 percent of their work will be green by 2015. That’s a big boost from 28 percent that said that more than 60 percent of their work would be of the green variety by 2013.
