Case Studies

Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits

by Gregory H. Kats

Massachusetts is a leading state in the rapidly growing green building movement. Buildings consume 70% of the nation's electricity and a large part of the materials, water and waste used and generated in our economy. Buildings have traditionally been viewed as a relatively static sector of the economy experiencing relatively little change in technology or resource consumption patterns. To date there has been awidespread perception that green buildings - though more attractive from an environmental and health perspective - are substantially more costly than conventional design and may not be justified from a cost benefits perspective. This perception has been the single largest obstacle to the more widespread adoption of green design.

This paper reviews a major recent report on the issue of green building costs benefits, "The Costs and Benefits of Green Buildings," Kats 1 et al., October 2003 2 (the Report). Led by Capital E, the Report was repared in partnership with the US Green Building Council and California's Sustainable Building Task Force for 40+ California state agencies. Download the PDF

Costing Green: A Comprehensive Cost Database and Costing Methodology

By Lisa Fay Matthiessen, Peter Morris of Davis Langdon Adamson

The first question often asked about sustainable design is: what does 'green' cost, typically meaning does it cost more? This raises the question: more than what? More than comparable buildings, more than the available funds, or more than the building would have cost without the sustainable design features? The answers to these questions have been thus far elusive, because of the lack of hard data.

This paper uses extensive data on building costs to compare the cost of green buildings with buildings housing comparable programs, which do not have sustainable goals. Download the PDF