Pre-Release – Green Buildings Study

Lead author: Greg Kats, Managing Director, Good Energies

Benefits of Building Green Outweigh Cost Premium

The largest international study of its kind, Greening Buildings and Communities: Costs and Benefits, is based on extensive financial and technical analysis of 150 green buildings across the U.S. and in 10 countries and provides the most detailed findings to date on the costs and financial benefits of building green. Among the study’s key findings:

• Green buildings cost an average of only 1.6% more to build than similar conventional buildings and provide a wide range of financial, health and social benefits.
• Green buildings reduce energy use by a median of 33%, resulting in significant cost savings.
• Green buildings create roughly $1/sf of value in increased employment by shifting spending from fossil fuel-based energy to more labor intensive domestic jobs in energy efficiency, renewable construction and new green industries.

Contributing authors:

• Michael James, Center for Catholic Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College
• Steve Apfelbaum, Applied Ecological Services
• Tom Darden, Cherokee Investment Partners
• Douglas Farr, Farr Associates/Terrapin Bright Green
• Robert F. Fox, Jr., Cook + Fox Architects
• Dr. Lawrence Frank, University of British Columbia/The BrookingsInstitution
• John “Skip”Laitner, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
• Christopher Leinberger, The Brookings Institution
• Gary J. Saulson, The PNC Financial Services Group
• Stockton Williams, Enterprise Community Partners
• Jon Braman, Good Energies