One of the nation's leading authorities on green building revealed today that the business of designing and constructing environmentally friendly buildings is continuing to grow in the U.S. despite the recession that is gripping the economy. What's more, he says, the move to build green in both commercial and residential development continues to gather momentum.
Jerry Yudelson, principal of the green building consulting firm Yudelson Associates in Tucson, Arizona, offered his upbeat forecast for sustainable design and construction practices as a tonic for the moribund building industry. Speaking at the newly constructed California Academy of Sciences Museum in San Francisco, a LEED Platinum building, Yudelson declared that green building practices had reached a new threshold of market acceptance among government officials, designers, builders, developers and the general public.
"What I found in my research is that green building is accelerating - the numbers keep going up and up," declared Yudelson, the author of eight books on the subject including the recently-published "Green Building Through Integrated Design." Whether it's residential construction, commercial development, or retrofitting of older structures, Yudelson says the trend is accelerating. "My projections are for a growth rate this year for the overall green building industry of at least 50%," he declared.
Yudelson offered his predictions as part of a series of short video commentaries on green building trends and sustainable development practices to be distributed to the public via YouTube. Yudelson's second commentary in this series is "How Will Green Building Do In the Face of the Economic Downturn?"
According to Yudelson, last year 20,000 green homes were built in the U.S. "Now," he observes, "in the face of the ongoing real estate depression, green homes are the best marketing vehicles for homebuilders across the country. We found that green building projects are going forward, people are buying them, and this is convincing builders to offer this type of product." More than 70 percent of current homebuyers, by one recent survey, said they preferred a green home.
It's the same in the commercial construction arena. Yudelson's research indicates there are more than 17,000 green building projects worth an average of $15 million now moving forward in the U.S. One reason, he says, is that green is now a key differentiator. "Take the new Bank of America Tower opening this year in New York City," he declares. "It's expects to be certified LEED Platinum. It's got two million square feet of space, cost almost $1 billion, and it's met the highest standards for both environmental construction and commercial development. That indicates you can go green with any type of building."
The green building consultant and green buildings speaker foresees continued growth in new smaller-scale commercial projects. He also predicts a boom in retrofitting older building for energy efficiency. Says Yudelson, people who operate large numbers of commercial buildings are now seeing "green" as a branding opportunity, as a competitive advantage and a value-add for their properties - one more reason why green building will continue to run counter to the prevailing downturn.
To view the video of Jerry Yudelson's complete green building predictions, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HwX8izFUa0 To receive an email notification when Yudelson's next green building commentary is posted, YouTube members may subscribe to the new Green Build Consult YouTube channel by clicking "Subscribe" on this web page: http://www.youtube.com/user/jyudelson.
To learn more about Yudelson Associates' green building consulting and marketing services, go to http://www.GreenBuildConsult.com. Individuals may also use this site to subscribe to Yudelson's green building blog and/or his Green Build Bulletin E-Newsletter.
About Yudelson Associates
Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation's leading experts on green building and green development. He is the author of eight green building books and serves as Research Scholar for Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and chaired the industry's largest annual show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment