Green Building Overview

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.