Is a sustainable building worth more than a comparable standard one?

While discussions about sustainable buildings have often been seen as the province of engineers and scientists, there is an increasing realisation that the financing, development and valuation of buildings can be a key driver for the creation of a market for sustainable buildings.

This was the issue addressed at a special RICS-sponsored event organised by Richard Lorch, Thomas Lützkendof and David Lorenz, as part of the Rethinking Sustainable Construction 2006 conference held in Sarasota, USA.

In this report, they summarise the key findings of the event and put forward proposals for a future research programme:

• To underpin effective market transformation, research is needed.  Key areas of research include the following.
• There is a need for a more detailed investigation of the relationships between technical, functional, environmental and social building performance on the one hand and economic effects on the other. 
• We need to investigate the implications of how buildings and building stocks (particularly modernisation activities) coudl be integrated into the next generation of carbon credit trading schemes.
• What is the relationship between labels and tools from the sustainable building community and the tools used by  banks, property professionals and financial analysts?
• How can these different tools interact and complement one another?