Building Green the 'New Black'
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- Building Sustainable Cities, Block by Block RMI partners with an innovative California non-profit to advance sustainable city blocks.
- Tools for Sustainable Design Download two tools that can help architects quickly evaluate the sustainability of their designs.
- Building Green the 'New Black' "Green" certified buildings outperform their conventional counterparts, a new study finds.
- RMI at Solar 2008 Tackling the challenges in scaling up solar and other energy sources
Once regarded as being too expensive to construct, a study has found sustainable "green"-rated buildings can actually deliver property developers and investors a higher financial return than more traditional non-green alternatives.
Energy Star and LEED-certified buildings outperform their conventional counterparts across a wide variety of metrics, including energy savings, occupancy rates, sale price and rental rates, the CoStar study found.
The research from CoStar Group, an informational real estate company, is one of a number of recent studies lauding the benefits of green building.
Results highlight the fact there is increased demand by property investors and tenants for buildings that have earned either the Energy Star label or LEED certification.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance “green” buildings.
Stuart Brodsky, from the EPA's Energy Star program, says premiums the market is willing to pay for Energy Star buildings -- as identified in the CoStar study -- demonstrate the overall impact of energy efficiency on property value.
"The business case for energy efficiency is indisputable," Brodsky said.
Green-built buildings have higher prices per square foot but have lower operating costs, the CoStar report stated.
Energy Star buildings are selling for an average of $61 more than conventional buildings per square foot more than their peers, while LEED buildings are selling for an average of $171 more per square foot, the study found.
Operating costs are 10-20 percent lower in Energy Star-rated buildings, improving operating income even more.
The study also stated green buildings achieve higher rents and have higher occupancies.
LEED buildings hold rent premiums of $11.33 per square foot versus their non-LEED peers and have a 4.1 percent higher
occupancy, while rental rates in Energy Star buildings represent a $2.40 per square foot premium versus comparable non-Energy Star buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy.
According to CoStar, researchers analyzed more than 1,300 LEED and Energy Star buildings representing about 351 million square feet, and assessed those buildings against non-green properties with similar size, location, class, tenancy and year-built characteristics to generate the results.
The study concluded that due to the clear increase in profit from developing, operating, and leasing green buildings, non-green buildings would soon become obsolete.
RMI's Built Environment Team is an international leader in the green building with expertise in energy efficiency, daylighting, and the LEED rating system.
BET has contributed to the design of hundreds of successful projects throughout the world that span diverse climates and building type.
Contact BET if you would like to find out the Team can work with you on improving your large-scale property.