A survey undertaken by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) shows that green costs are overestimated by 300%.

Respondents to a 1.400 person global survey estimated the additional cost of building green at 17% above conventional construction, more than triple the true cost difference of about 5%.

This findings are disclosed in a recently published WBCSD report titled 'Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and Opportunities', which summarizes the first phase of the WBCSD’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project.

In short, the current conclusions of the WBCSD are that the technology available today can achieve dramatic improvements in building energy efficiency, but market failures and behavioural barriers are blocking progress toward the EEB vision of zero net energy. Achieving zero net energy requires three key elements:

• Use less energy;
• Make more energy (locally);
• Share surplus energy (through an intelligent grid).

Implementation of Energy Efficient measures in buildings is hampered by three barriers:

• Lack of information about building energy use and costs;
• Lack of leadership from professionals and business people in the industry;
• Lack of know-how and experience as too few professionals have been involved in sustainable building work.

The report, as well as a link to the WBCSD EEB-blog, can be found in the download section on the right-hand side of the screen.

As a reaction to an article on the report on the Euractiv website, RICS has emphasized its 'Green Value' study, which shows that while there are signs of an increasing market value of green buildings, industry stakeholders still seem to be failing to get the message across that the main beneficiaries are the building's occupants.

For more information on the RICS Green Value study, please click here.

For more information, please contact Ursula Hartenberger or Kerstin Fischer