New Market Study Finds Green Buildings Continue Impressive GrowthGreen building activity has sustained impressive growth during 2009 amid a brutal construction market that has decimated other segments of the construction marketplace, according to the 2009 Green Building Market & Impact Report published by GreenerBuildings.com. According to report author Rob Watson, floor area registered and certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building rating system in 2009 is estimated to grow by over 40 percent compared to last year's totals, for a cumulative total of over 7 billion square feet worldwide since the standard was launched in 2000. The annual report, which can be freely downloaded at www.GreenerBuildings.com, assesses the environmental impacts of green building as well as its impact on the overall building market. It found that while dramatic declines in 2009 U.S. new non-residential construction might result in construction starts dipping below the one billion square foot mark for the first time in many years, registrations of LEED new construction projects in the U.S. are expected to exceed 1 billion square feet. "There may be a 'lifeboat effect' at work, where the market is
jumping to the hot trend in the hopes of dodging the economic bullet,"
said Watson, who served as the U.S. Green Building Council's national
LEED Steering Committee Chairman between 1994 and 2005. "Somewhat
reflecting this, membership in the USGBC is stronger than forecast,
expecting to grow over 10 percent and top 20,000 for the first time,
compared with a predicted 3 percent decrease."
The report also assesses the impact of green building outside the
United States. According to Watson, non-U.S. green building reached
nearly 800 million square feet of registered projects in 2009,
representing more than a fourth of all project square footage. Non-U.S.
LEED projects could show a 30 percent increase in registration this
year, thanks in large part to green building booms in China, India, and
the Middle East. Green building is also growing quickly in Europe,
notably Germany and Italy. This article originally appeared on GreenerBuildings and is reproduced with the kind permission of Greener World Media. For daily news and articles visit www.greenerbuildings.com.
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