The Green Building Market and Impact Report 2009

This second annual report, researched and written by Rob Watson, the "Founding Father of LEED," explores the impacts that LEED-certified buildings have already had on energy, water, waste and employee productivity -- and projects those impacts for the next 20 years.

Download the report for free from GreenerBuildings.com.

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Green buildings, as represented by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System of the U.S. Green Building Council, are an undisputed market success. In the eight years since the launch of LEED, green has firmly established itself among mainstream leaders in the building sector, representing tens of billions of dollars in value put in place and materials sales.

LEED was created to reduce the environmental impacts of the built environment, but so far no comprehensive evaluation of the overall impact of LEED has been conducted. Until now.

The Green Building Impact Report (GBIR) is the first integrated assessment of the land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing Building (LEED EB) standards.

In this report we attempt to answer whether green buildings live up to their name.