Interest in third-party certification for green buildings continues to climb, with 62 percent of respondents to a biennial survey by an international building firm saying they are extremely likely or very likely to seek LEED approval if they undertake a construction project.
That's up from 48 percent the last time Turner Construction Co. asked about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for its Green Building Market Barometer in 2012.
What a difference two years makes.
In that time period the percentage of business executives likely to seek green certification under an alternate rating system also grew — more than doubling from 17 percent to 43 percent. Their other options include Green Globes and Energy Star programs.
Jerry Yudelson, president of the Green Building Initiative, which administers Green Globes, is pleased with the gain in the number of survey respondents willing to look at other choices to LEED, which has become the most widely used green building program in the world since its launch in 2000.
Green Globes, which started in 2004, is considered by many to be a LEED rival that is friendlier to the plastics and lumber industries. The non-profit group bills itself as the “practical” program because certification can be achieved online at a cheaper cost than LEED.
“The market for green building certification is clearly changing with building owners more interested in cost-effective rating systems that help them to design and operate commercial properties,” Yudelson said in a news release. “We view this as a positive sign for the future growth of Green Globes family of green building rating systems.”
Yudelson, a former national board member for the U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees LEED, became president of the Green Building Initiative in January 2014.
The latest edition of Turner's market barometer also shows of the survey respondents — 312 executives from corporate, construction, architecture, engineering, real estate and development companies — 71 percent are expanding their planning emphasis beyond energy-efficient buildings to water-efficient improvements.
Turner is a New York-based construction company with 5,200 employees working on more than 1,500 projects each year.