Green building growth to rebound
LEED project growth was slow in 2011, only gaining 3 percent for the year. But while LEED certification on new projects may take longer to gain much steam, the program's retrofitting arm, LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM), is quickly gaining traction.
EBOM project registrations were up 18 percent last year, and the EBOM project area exceeded the cumulative LEED-NC (New Construction) area for the first time, with 675 million square feet of EBOM vs. 649 million square feet of NC.
"That trend will continue this year," Yudelson says, as more property owners realize that retrofitting to LEED standards is fairly painless when starting with a building that is already Energy Star-rated.