Green Buildings on the Rise in Commercial Market

In recent years, there has been a collective push towards a greener, more sustainable style of living. New products have been created promoting the "Go Green" mindset, new modes of transportation have been designed in the hope of reducing our carbon footprint, and surprisingly this trend has even spread to the commercial property market.  In 2010, a report lead by Nils Kok suggested that the push towards sustainable building would be slow across the commercial property sector. Four years later, he has revisited the topic due to the many changes that abounded in the intermittent years, looking at data provided by USGBC and the EPA.

Kok's new research has found that the desire for energy efficiency and sustainability in the real estate market has not slowed down. In fact, it was found the push towards LEED design to be of an even greater significance in recent years and that it shows no signs of stopping.

According to the new research, more than 10 percent of the real estate and commercial property market has adopted ENERGY STAR for office buildings, and the proportion of LEED certified buildings in the commercial sector has increased from 0.5 percent in 2005 to 5 percent in 2014.  This sizable increase is exceptionally surprising for the property market as it tends to be both slow moving and cautious to drastic change. Click here to read more about the new report's findings regarding the movement towards energy efficiency and sustainability.

Based on this data, this is just the beginning of what is to come from the push for better, greener buildings.  With the changes seen in just a decade, it will be interesting to see what further innovations will be made in the near future in order to continue improving and expanding upon energy efficient design and building.


What is LEED?
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system. Created by the United States Green Building Council, LEED provides a point system for green buildings and their construction, awarding points for 6 main areas: Location and Transportation, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Buildings are then awarded levels of certification--Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. The more points a building gets, the higher their level of certification.


Don't fall behind in this growing field of energy efficiency and sustainability in the real estate sector! Become a LEED Certified Professional today from a tried and trusted trainer like Green Education Services. Still not sure what it means to be LEED certified? Read more about it here.