Research into advanced building design reveals that early adopters of green building design have often been of the “golden green” variety. These are decision-makers with a core ethic around the environment who believe that they should be incorporating as many green advances into their buildings as possible to address their concerns and sense of responsibility about the environment. Early forays into sustainable design have been led by this segment, and the recent emphasis on climate, sustainability and green in popular press is encouraging more of these decision-makers to come out of the woods. The green building trend will continue to grow, albeit slowly, as a result of this bolstered confidence.

Shades of Green

But a bulk of buyers don’t fit that golden green description. Does that mean that we need to wait until everyone gets the spirit? Not necessarily. A healthcare executive shared recently that energy was less than 5 percent of his operating budget, and that his board had little interest in building for the environment’s sake. But still he was looking at smart and green building concepts. His rationale? “If I can demonstrate the impact on healthy patient outcomes, or nurse error or doctor retention, then it matters to us,” he said. “And if more of our patients start to care about things like this, it might eventually make a difference on who they feel will make them healthy.”

Behind this healthcare executive are a growing number of companies across many sectors that are watching sustainability as a potential market trend around which they may need to position their firms. These “brilliant” green firms are evaluating sustainability as a trend impacting business fundamentals, personal lifestyle, and policy landscape, much as technology and other trends have before now. Within this context, they’ll look for those smart and green innovations that will have the most strategic and financial impact on their top and bottom lines — but only if they are framed in terms of value, not just environmental impact. As it has always been, building the economic case is just as critical — or even more critical — as the environmental argument. Luckily there are a proliferation of smart and green technologies that are helping to create truly brilliant buildings — ones that are economically valuable, environmentally sound, and more durable and secure.

High-Value/Low-Impact

While the focus to date as been more on managing the impact of buildings on the environment, going forward sustainable design will mean looking to wring more value out of the building choices, all while lessening any negative impacts over the lifecycle of the building and beyond. This high value/low impact design approach may seem like a subtle shift, but, ironically, the environment will actually benefit more from this shift as it leads to more rapid increase in the adoption rates of brilliant approaches.