In the 1990s, leaders from the building industry began to recognize the importance of promoting environmentally responsible design. To this end, they formed the United States Green Building Coalition (USGBC). To help transform the way buildings and communities are designed and promote sustainable design, the USGBC established the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The LEED system provides an integrated design guideline and a standard for defining and measuring “green.”
Why focus on sustainable design?
Sustainable design is the art of combining design and building construction practices to significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact of buildings on the environment and on the occupants of buildings. Buildings leave a tremendous impact on the environment. The demand for construction will only increase as established and emerging societies continue to grow, quickly consuming the world’s resources. If we do our part to help conserve resources, we can affect the sustainability of our company, our industry, and our planet.
In 2007, more than $12 billion in new construction was put in place. By December 2007, 3.2 billion square feet of constructed space was either registered or certified for LEED. Roughly 80% of the RFPs and RFQs we see today contain requirements for sustainable design or construction or involve projects that are slated for LEED certification.
So how are we doing?
Over the past three years, Balfour Beatty Construction has completed approximately $3.4 billion of LEED or other energy and environmentally certified construction. We have 350 LEED certified professionals and Green Associates among our employees.