The words “green” and “sustainable” gets thrown a lot for commercial and residential real estate development. But what is a green or sustainable building and what is happening in Canada for green building development?

A Green Building is an environmentally sustainable building, designed, constructed and operated to minimise total environmental impacts.

The main ways to achieve a green building include: reduced energy consumption, water conversation and recycling waste.

Green Building Market Growing

The market for green buildings in Canada is growing year over year. By 2017, more than 60% of construction projects will be green. Canada will soon be on par with the U.S. in terms of green building and is higher on a global scale.

Reasons to Build Green

The two main reasons for the green building market growth is “Doing the Right Thing” and “Client Demand”.

While the moral factor was the number one choice, client demand was the second reason which shows the business factors that drive green construction.

The third most popular reason was a social factor – to promote greater health and well-being for the occupants in the building.

Benefits of Green Building

Canadian building owners, architects and contractors state that green buildings have a major impact on decreasing operating costs in the first year after construction and it continues in the years that follow.

• 82% of buildings owners/developers report decreases in energy consumption compared to similar buildings
• 68% of owners/developers report decreases in water consumption

For green retrofit/renovation projects, they found it adds to the value of the building with a median increased of 4%.

Green Building is the Future

With the high amount of activity for green building construction, green building is the future and it also the present.

With the environmental, social and financial benefits, why wouldn’t you build green?