Interest in Alternative Green Building Rating Systems Surges

NEW YORK — In two years, interest in alternative green building rating systems, such as Green Globes and Energy Star, has surged 250 percent, according to a new report. Additionally, for the first time in the report’s history, more than half of building executives surveyed reported that sustainability practices impacted their decisions about choosing a supplier or service provider.
The findings are from New York-based Turner Construction’s 2014 Green Building Market Barometer, released Oct. 21. The company surveyed 312 building executives — owner-occupants, tenants, construction planners, architects, engineers, real estate owners and developers, and brokers/real estate service providers — last month.
While most respondents said they’re still interested in obtaining LEED certification on construction projects, there was a huge jump in the number who said they would be extremely or very likely to seek alternative certification, from 17 percent in 2012 to 43 percent in 2014.
The number of respondents that said they consider the level of a vendor’s sustainable practices to be extremely or very important has been steadily rising since 2010. Fifty-six percent of respondents would emphasize sustainable practices when choosing a supplier of goods and materials, and 52 percent said it would impact their decision about a service provider. Those numbers were 43 percent and 39 percent, respectively, in 2010.
Other takeaways from the survey include continued interest in the financial benefits of green building; more attention to the benefits green building has on employees and occupants; more attention to water efficiency; and an increased focus on building resiliency.
“While building owners continue to incorporate green features in buildings to reduce operating costs, we see more organizations paying closer attention to the positive impacts of green buildings on indoor environmental quality and employee satisfaction and productivity,” said Michael Deane, chief sustainability officer for Turner Construction, in a statement. “We are also seeing, both in our own work and from the results of the survey, increased attention to maintaining essential building operations in the face of extreme weather events.”
In deciding whether to incorporate green features, financial considerations were most often rated as extremely or very important. Roughly 80 percent of executives think about financial impacts such as energy efficiency, asking rents, occupancy rates, and operations and maintenance costs. However, more than 70 percent of executives also prioritize non-financial factors, such as indoor air quality, impact on brand and the health and satisfaction of employees and occupants.
The report also found that water conservation has become more important, with 71 percent of respondents saying they would incorporate improved water efficiency into new construction and renovations. That number is up from 57 percent in 2012.
Building resiliency is also a priority for executives. In the survey, 66 percent said achieving resiliency during events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts is extremely or very important when their organization designs, constructs or operates a building.