Sustainable Construction, 5th Edition

Chapter 17The Cutting Edge of Sustainable Construction

Construction is sometimes called “the world's largest economic ecosystem,” and it accounts for 13 percent of global GDP, provides $11 trillion of value-added, and earns $1.5 trillion in profits annually. However, it has experienced low productivity growth at less than 1 percent annually compared to 2.8 percent for the economy as a whole over the past 20 years. Sustainability, climate change, COVID-19, and other factors have triggered a disruption that will change the way construction business is conducted. Climate change and other long-term issues are now informing the design and construction of all types of buildings. The result of these upheavals and the critical need to improve productivity will be a standard integrated low-energy, carbon neutral product, designed with BIM and BIM plug-ins, and manufactured in factories that directly connect the owner, design team, manufacturing process, logistics system, and the construction manager to produce a far superior product. The trend toward designing and producing green buildings has already resulted in the market being dominated by green buildings.

In the United States, for all practical purposes, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the Green Building Initiative's Green Globes building assessment systems are the leaders in defining what constitutes a high-performance green building. Although LEED and Green Globes ...