Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Conventional Wisdom Wrong
Green Building Not More Expensive
There is no statistically significant difference between the cost of green and non-green buildings, according to a recent report.
The July 2007 “Cost of Green Revisited” report updated an influential 2004 study of the cost of green building by Lisa Fay Matthiessen and Peter Morris of Davis Langdon. The authors concluded that there are so many huge cost factors in construction that it is not possible to detect any cost difference between sustainably constructed and conventional buildings.
Based on an analysis of the budgets for 221 projects, the report concludes that “buildings cannot be budgeted based on averages,” leaving open the question of whether a green approach affects cost.
Posted by editor at 06:37 AM under green • book reviews
