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Global Green Building to Double by 2018

Study positions the U.S. as strong participant in the global green movement

NEW YORK — Companies involved in U.S. construction plan on intensifying their involvement in green building over the next three years, according to a new World Green Building Trends Study from Dodge Data & Analytics, conducted with support from United Technologies Corp. and its UTC Climate, Controls & Security business. The U.S. is also one of the global leaders in the percentage of firms expecting to construct new green institutional projects and green retrofits of existing buildings.

The global study — which received additional support from Saint-Gobain North America, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Regenerative Network — positions the U.S. as a strong participant in the global green movement. Responses from more than 1,000 building professionals from 60 countries place the U.S. green industry in context. The study also provides specific comparisons with 12 other countries from which a sufficient response was gained to allow for statistical analysis: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, and the U.K.

According to the report, U.S. construction should see an increase in the share of green work in the next few years, largely as a result of companies intensifying their involvement in the green building industry. An increasing percentage of respondents projected that more than 60 percent of their projects would be green projects, up from 24 percent of respondents in 2015 to 39 percent in 2018. Respondents projecting that fewer than 15 percent of their projects would be certified green plummeted from 41 percent in 2015 to 27 percent by 2018.

While this increased share of green building is impressive, it is significantly less than many developing countries included in the survey. For example, Brazil expects six-fold growth (from 6 percent to 36 percent) in the percentage of companies conducting a majority of their projects green; five-fold growth is expected in China (from 5 percent to 28 percent); and four-fold growth is expected in Saudi Arabia (from 8 percent to 32 percent).

“The strong U.S. industry for green building projects is clearly an opportunity for U.S. firms, but so is the rapid rise of green in many of the developing countries,” said Stephen Jones, senior director of industry insights, Dodge Data & Analytics. “Expertise from experienced green designers, builders, and manufacturers from the U.S. is likely to be essential to support the aggressive green building expectations revealed by the study respondents.”

“The survey shows that global green building activity continues to double every three years,” said John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer, United Technologies. “More people recognize the economic and productivity value that green buildings bring to property owners and tenants, along with the energy and water benefits to the environment, which is driving the green building industry’s growth. It’s a win-win for people, planet, and the economy.”

To download the full study, visit http://bit.ly/1TeEWmU; to download the U.S. report, visit http://bit.ly/1L7mYQP.

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