Green buildings: interest collides with economy

Interest is high in creating energy-efficient buildings, but harsh
economic realities seem to be slowing the ability of companies to
forge ahead with such building projects, according to a new
study commissioned by Johnson Controls, a well-known supplier
of building management systems.

The Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI), annual survey of business
leaders views on energy efficient building concerns, revealed
barriers to improvements, despite the fact that 71 percent of
business leaders are paying more attention to energy efficiency
than they were one year ago. For example, 58 percent responded that
energy management was “extremely” or “very important,” and among
organizations making public carbon commitments, 45 percent
identified energy efficiency in buildings as their top carbon
reduction strategy.

The biggest road block, as you might guess, is limited funding. The
study revealed a likely 10 percent decrease from last year in the
use of facility capital budgets to fund energy efficiency projects.
It also showed a 6 percent decrease in the number of respondents
planning to make investments using their operational budgets. For
an executive summary of the EEI study and access to an accompanying
slide presentation,
click here.

The study is a sobering one for watchers of corporate
sustainability initiatives, and confirms something we all know: the
economy has slowed energy efficiency projects that require larger
outlays of capital. On the plus side, it confirms growing, near
unanimous interest in sustainability goals among business leaders.
It also shows some political savvy on the part of these leaders,
with 85 percent of respondents stating that legislation mandating
energy efficiency and/or carbon reduction is likely within the next
two years, up from 76 percent who said so in 2008. I believe that
when the economy revives, and when government policies become more
clear, especially in regards to their impact  on the “price”
of carbon emissions, we are going to see a surge in green building
investments. The interest is already there.