Green Building in Western Massachusetts

This is the introduction to a great digital book by Greg Katz. If your interested in seeing the rest of the free report simply leave your email address in the box to the right of this article and I will send you the link.

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 a
widespread 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,” Kats1 et al.,
October 2003 2 (the Report). Led by Capital E,
the Report was prepared in partnership with the
US Green Building Council and California’s
Sustainable Building Task Force for 40+ California
state agencies

What are green buildings?
“Green” or “sustainable” buildings use key
resources like energy, water, materials, and land
more efficiently than buildings that are just built
to code. With more natural light and better air
quality, green buildings typically contribute to
improved employee and student health, comfort,
and productivity. The United States Green
Building Council (USGBC), a national non-profit
membership organization, developed the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) SystemTM to provide a guideline and rating
system for green buildings.
It is generally recognized that buildings consume
a large portion of water, wood, energy, and other
resources used in the economy. For example, US
buildings alone are responsible for more CO2.
emissions than those of any other entire country
in the world except China.3 If building green is
cost effective, a broad shift to green construction
offers a potentially promising way to help address
a range of challenges facing Massachusetts,
including:
■ Address growing costs of transmission and
distribution congestion. The growth of
Time of Use rates (TOU) by Massachusetts
utilities, and the creation of congestion
pricing in the form of locational marginal
pricing 4 allows building owners to capture
some of the benefits associated with lower
overall and lower peak energy use in green
buildings
Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits
Greg Kats