New York, NY, January 26, 2007--McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies released the latest issue of its SmartMarket Report series, detailing its findings of market research into green building in the education construction sector.
The release is taking place 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.
MHC found that the education sector is the fastest growing market for green building, good news for the industry, given that education construction comprises 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 these buildings.
"The results are very exciting. Given the fact that education construction is worth $53 billion overall and the market indicators point to strong green building growth in this sector, we expect the green building share to be significant in five years," states Harvey M. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill Construction vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives. "Research like this will help shed light on this important area of green building--and help us to make the case to truly provide our nation's students with environments that will maximize their learning."
Tom Kube, executive director and CEO of CEFPI concurs, "The findings in the SmartMarket Report are important because they confirm a lot of what we thought about the challenges and advantages of green schools. Our members have been increasingly aware of the importance of high performance schools, and we will continue to use our High Performance Schools Symposium as a forum to help in the building and maintenance of more efficient and healthy schools."
The study also found that the concern for improved health and well-being was the most critical social reason for driving education green building--a factor that was not as highly rated in research previously conducted by MHC into the commercial and residential green building markets. Also fiscal advantages of green building, such as energy cost savings, are the major motivation behind the building of green schools and universities, and higher first costs are the primary challenge to building green in this sector, though recent studies by Capital E and Davis Langdon point to minor increases in first cost increases, which are more than recouped in operational cost savings.
Operational cost decreases resulting from green building is the most important trigger to faster adoption of green school building. There's also 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.
"Following on the fiscal advantages of green schools found in the recent study by Capital E, the research in the Education Green Building SmartMarket Report on market perceptions and sizing provides more reasons to make this a priority green building market," states Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of USGBC. "More importantly, though, it's the right thing to do for our next generations."
The research results contained in the Education Green Building SmartMarket Report were drawn from two phases of study. The first phases looked at the perceptions of "green leaders" as defined as owners and facility managers/operators of green schools and universities. The second phase was a survey of a broader representation of school construction professionals as represented by the membership of CEFPI.
