Photovoltaic Systems

Last month USGBC posted Green Buildings by the Numbers, a three-page, bite-size State of the Green Building Union that simply brings together some useful stats.  This palatable little report helps a person wrap their head around the realities and opportunities for green building.  The authors seem to have attempted a sort of realistic optimism with a series of facts and percentages that say ‘there’s been progress in gaining market share for green buildings and buildings stand to make huge gains in the struggle to create a more sustainable human existence, but we’re not there yet.’  Included are a couple of specific statements on the expectations for green building market penetration (see one of the more intriguing quotes below), but the authors shied away from detailing market penetration thus far.

“By 2009, 82% of corporate America is expected to be greening at least 16% of their real estate portfolios; of these corporations, 18% will be greening more than 60% of their real estate portfolios (Source: McGraw Hill Construction (2007).  Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report.)”

That being said, one of the best parts of the paper is a chart specifying the total projects registered and certified for each LEED rating system.  These numbers have not always been easy to come by, so it’s good to see it laid out in black and white.  Bottom line: 16,393 registered and 2,150 certified, with the lion’s share in LEED for New Construction.

With this information it’s obvious that, right now, LEED is taking up a much larger percentage of the building industry’s mental square footage in conversations and publications than actual square footage in bricks and mortar.  HOWEVER – and the authors point this out – there are plenty of reasons to be proud of what’s been accomplished and hopeful for more victories to come.  The influence of USGBC is wide-flung with projects in all 50 states and 69 countries; they have over 17,000 member organizations, over 69,000 LEED APs, and their numbers are growing almost exponentially.

Also, because it typically takes 2-3 years to complete the LEED certification process, it’s reasonable to expect that the jump in registrations over the past 24 months will lead to a jump in certification over the next 24 months.  Not to mention, $464 million worth of construction continues to register with LEED every business day.  This isn’t put into context (how many millions of square feet are available to register every day?) but, well, it sounds pretty decent for a market transformation that isn’t meant to happen overnight.

[+] Green Building by the Numbers [USGBC, December 2008 - Word]

Last month, while everyone was still coming down from presidential election frenzy and ramping up for Greenbuild, Building Design + Construction offered up another distraction: their annual white paper on the State of Green Building.  This is the sixth in an annual series that was initially inspired by the success of Greenbuild 2002.  While reports from the early years included remarks on the chances for the green building movement to keep rolling, the editors get a little more definitive this time around, starting on page four: "…no matter where you stand personally on the social, economic, political, or environmental issues related to climate change, you will soon have no choice but to factor it into your professional work."

A Decree: Factor It In

More than a rallying cry: this is a decree.  Not that it’s breaking news
–- but the editors at Building Design + Construction were taking a step beyond echoing the
observation that the green building movement is on its way to
mainstream.  They were attempting to motivate their readers.

The white
paper, entitled "Green Buildings + Climate Change," embraces a much
more outward facing agenda than past years’ reports, which always
focused on analyzing the green building movement itself (topics
included Life Cycle Assessment and Green Buildings and the Bottom
Line).  This year’s table of contents reads like a What’s What in
Sustainability, with reporting on major national, regional, state, and
local climate change initiatives, current possibilities for a cap and
trade system, and a discussion of the prominent studies and suggested
mitigation strategies that have jarred the environmental movement in
recent years.

A Matter of Degrees

To introduce all of this, the editors dedicated Chapter
One to a cliff notes version of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4, 2007), put out by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change –- "…the most scientifically valid and politically unbiased resource on
climate change available."  AR4 removes reasonable doubt that human
activity warms the planet, and shows us that all those scary numbers,
percentages, and estimated future degrees Celsius are … getting scarier.

This information is carefully tied into green buildings, the crucial
role the built environment could play in mitigating climate change
(approximately 40% of the nation’s energy is sucked into buildings), and the fact that the AEC industry has hardly begun to wield its power.  To quote, "only a small percent of new commercial buildings, and an even smaller
percentage of new homes, gets any kind of green treatment … the
situation is even more distressing when it comes to existing buildings,
which represent about 98% of the square footage in place in any one
year."  It would be nice to have some firmer numbers on the rate with
which market transformation isn’t happening, but the idea is pretty
clear.  Green Buildings + Climate Change pounds out the message: We
have a problem here and, building industry folks, you’ve got to start
helping to fix it.

22 Suggestions to Green

Readers are left with a comprehensive, well-thought
out list of 22 suggestions for AEC professionals to green their
practices.  There is also a section dedicated to the virtues of building
commissioning, which is demonstrated to pay for itself many times over
in umpteen studies, but just hasn’t caught hold yet: “Only about 1% of
buildings are commissioned,” says the U.S. Department of Energy.  The
authors aren’t preaching to the choir.  Greening isn’t happening on a
large scale yet because the building industry (the audience for this
white paper) isn’t making it happen, isn’t convincing clients.

Although
BD+C’s climate change survey of 900+ AEC professionals showed that 95%
of respondents said they had acted to "address climate change in
their personal lives," there was a “vocal” contingent of skeptics
(again, unfortunately, we didn’t get numbers on this).  Says a project manager
in Tennessee: “The so-called environmental movement is not based on
sound principles, but as a means to redistribute wealth and move our
civilization backwards.”  So, it’s not just inertia or the perceived
expense that’s holding green building back.  A lack of personal
motivation is another serious hurdle that needs to be overcome. Green
Buildings + Climate Change puts forth a good effort on addressing that
situation.

White Paper Download

[+] Green Buildings + Climate Change [PDF, Download w/ free registration]