The education sector is the fastest-growing market for green building, according to a McGraw-Hill Construction (MHC) report. MHC is part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP).
The report will be released at the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) 5th Annual High Performance Schools Symposium. CEFPI and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) were co-sponsors of the report.
That’s good news for the industry, given that education construction is the largest construction sector, by value, at $53 billion for 2007.
MHC focused on the education sector because of the specific sensitivities children have to indoor air pollutants and environments, as well as the amount of time students (at the K-12 and university levels) spend in buildings.
“Market indicators point to strong green building growth in this sector and we expect the green building share to be significant in five years,” says Harvey Bernstein, MHC vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives.
The study finds:
* a concern for “improved health and well-being” is the most important social reason for using green building in schools – a factor that wasn’t as highly rated in MHC’s prior research into the commercial and residential green building markets;
* fiscal advantages of green building, such as energy cost savings, are the major motivation behind the building of green schools and universities;
* higher first costs are the primary challenge to building green in this sector
* “operational cost decreases” resulting from green building are the most important trigger to faster adoption of green school building;
* there is a strong need for access to and information on green building products, particularly those relating to improving health, such as reducing mold and indoor air pollutants;
* across the board, the industry is calling for independent, third-party standards for green building products.
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