On April 22, 2010, just in time for Earth Day,  the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America)  released a report called “Building a Green Future.”   It’s a very comprehensive document that provides a blue print for increasing demand, and funding for environmentally conscious construction techniques, and how following these plans would make a big impact on our collective carbon footprint going forward . Here are some interesting comments from the report:
In the U.S. we use nearly 40 percent of our nation’s energy to power our buildings —this includes lighting, heating and cooling, appliances and electronics. Accordingly, our buildings accounted for 35 percent of the nation’s total manmade greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2008.Residential and nonresidential buildings also use approximately 13 percent of all potable water and 40 percent of the non-food/fuel raw materials use.
By one estimate, the landscape of our buildings will be altered 75 percent by the year 2035 through the typical pace of change: from new development, complete demolition and redevelopment to the major renovation of existing buildings.
The report provides some interesting definitions of “Green Building”, for both commercial and residential projects, and provides a road map of numerous steps, that if used in our construction projects going forward, could make a substantial improvement in our environment.  You can take a look at the entire report here.