The market for green buildings is exploding and the lion’s share of the opportunity exists in retrofits, not new buildings. McGraw-Hill Construction’s latest SmartMarket Report, Green Building Retrofit & Renovation: Rapidly Expanding Market Opportunities Through Existing Buildings, was released at the Green Retrofit Conference in New York recently. The report finds that new buildings represent only 2.5% of the US building market, while retrofitting provides an enormous market opportunity for green builders, owners and building product manufacturers.Currently, green building comprises 5-9% of the retrofit and renovation market activity by value. This equates to a $2-4 billion marketplace for major projects. By 2014, that share is projected to increase by 20-30%, creating a $10-15 billion market for major retrofit projects in only five years.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently announced their list of the greenest cities in the United States and have released their findings on a new web site, called Smarter Cities. The survey includes all cities in the United States with populations larger than 50,000. Smarter Cities is considered to be one of the nation’s most comprehensive and robust database of U.S. urban progress toward sustainability. Seattle ranked number one and San Francisco ranked number 2 among the 67 large cities that were evaluated. Madison, Wisconsin placed firstand Santa Rosa, California came in second among the 176 medium cities that were surveyed. Among the 402 cities that were evaluated, Bellingham, Washington came in first place and Mountain View, California came in second.
Engineering News-Record recently released its annual Top list of 100 Green Design Firms. The list is based on design revenue from registered sustainable projects. ENR annual Sourcebooks and Top Lists are the industry standard references for leadership and market trends. According to ENR, these “Top 100 Green Design Firms generated $2.85 billion in revenue in 2008 from projects registered with such green design programs as the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, an increase of 63.9% over $1.74 billion in 2007.”
The U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington, DC-based national nonprofit organization of over 18,000 corporate and organizational members from every sector of the building industry united to transform the building marketplace to sustainability, currently has an opening for an individual with an interest in learning about nonprofit fundraising and management to serve as intern with its Fund Development Department.
The intern will work closely with department staff to research prospective funders; draft proposals, reports, and department communications; assist in fundraising appeals; and support department administration. Training opportunities provided.
Executive Director U.S. Green Building Council Georgia Chapter – Georgia. The Executive Director will work with an engaged and active Board of Directors to implement the mission, vision and strategic plan of the organization. The Executive Director has the unique opportunity of implementing the strategic plan to position the Georgia Chapter as leading partner in the field of “green” buildings, Statewide.
There may never be a better time to begin new building retrofits and investments in energy efficiency than the climate that prevails today. Commercial and residential buildings accounted for 39 percent of the total US energy consumption. Lowering these on-going expenditures can have such an impact on the bottom line for building operators and owners that this may represent one of the safest and most lucrative places to invest in. The green building sector offers many opportunities for retrofitting existing buildings to increase their energy efficiency lower their water usage or storm water runoff and so forth that present a whole slew of skilled labor and small business ideas for enterprising individuals and contractors willing to make the leap as well as largely untapped growth opportunities for larger corporations.
