Green Building Trends
Going into 2012 and the future it is becoming increasingly vital to ensure that our buildings are up to the times following the latest green building trends. Not only does conforming to the green building codes increase your image in the community, it saves you money and ultimately helps save the planet. The hope is that we can build new construction with green technology at the same cost that it would afford us if we were to do it with techniques of old.
Almost as important as building from scratch with sustainability and the protection of the environment in mind, many operations and maintenance is being made to existing buildings and will need to continue to do so. Perhaps the biggest proponent to green initiatives is the man termed The Godfather of Green himself, Mr. Jerry Yudelson. He is a member of the U.S. Green Building Councils board of directors, co-founder and also the director of the Green Building Service consulting unit at Portland General Electric, as well as a national faculty member for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Below is the list of the Top 10 Green Megatrends for 2012 that Yudelson came up with and shared in a webinar on GreenExpo365. These are split up for trends he feels will take flight in the United States as well as others that will more-so be seen on the global-scale.
United States Trends:
- Green building growth to rebound
- Federal momentum has slowed
- LEED-EBOM (LEED for Existing Buildings : Operations and Maintenence) will gain momentum
- Water issues grow in importance
- Zero-net-energy to gain traction
Global Trends:
- Green building movement will continue to grow
- Performance disclosure
- Global carbon ratings
- Solar power stalls
- Building management goes into the cloud
In a very extensive article from Inman News, each of the above trends are explained in great detail.
