McGraw-Hill Construction Releases the Education Green Building SmartMarket
Report at the Council of Educational Facility Planners International's 5th
High Performance Schools Symposium
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, McGraw-Hill
Construction (MHC), part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), releases
the latest issue of its SmartMarket Report(TM) series, detailing its
findings of market research into green building in the education
construction sector. The report will be released at the Council of
Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) 5th Annual High
Performance Schools Symposium. CEFPI and the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC) were co-sponsors of the report.
MHC found that the education sector is the fastest-growing market for
green building, good news for the industry, given that education
construction is the largest construction sector, by value, at $53 billion
for 2007. MHC focused on the education sector because of the specific
sensitivities children have to indoor air pollutants and environments, as
well as the amount of time students (at the K-12 and university levels)
spend in these buildings.
"The results are very exciting. Given the fact that education
construction is worth $53 billion overall and the market indicators point
to strong green building growth in this sector, we expect the green
building share to be significant in five years," stated Harvey M.
Bernstein, McGraw- Hill Construction vice president of Industry Analytics,
Alliances and Strategic Initiatives. "Research like this will help shed
light on this important area of green building - and help us to make the
case to truly provide our nation's students with environments that will
maximize their learning."
Thomas A. Kube, Executive Director and CEO of CEFPI, concurred: "The
findings in the SmartMarket Report are important because they confirm a lot
of what we thought about the challenges and advantages of green schools.
Our members have been increasingly aware of the importance of
high-performance schools, and we will continue to use our High Performance
Schools Symposium as a forum to help in the building and maintenance of
more efficient and healthy schools."
The study also found that:
* the concern for "improved health and well-being" was the most critical
social reason for driving education green building -- a factor that was
not as highly rated in MHC's prior research into the commercial and
residential green building markets;
* fiscal advantages of green building, such as energy cost savings, are
the major motivation behind the building of green schools and
universities;
* higher first costs are the primary challenge to building green in this
sector, though recent studies by Capital E and Davis Langdon point to
minor increases in first cost increases, which are more than recouped in
operational cost savings;
* "operational cost decreases" resulting from green building are the most
important trigger to faster adoption of green school building;
* there is a strong need for access to and information on green building
products, particularly those relating to improving health, such as
reducing mold and indoor air pollutants;
* across the board, the industry is calling for independent, third-party
standards for green building products.
"Following on the fiscal advantages of green schools found in the
recent study by Capital E, the research in the Education Green Building
SmartMarket Report on market perceptions and sizing provides more reasons
to make this a priority green building market," stated Rick Fedrizzi,
President and CEO of USGBC. "More importantly, though, it's the right thing
to do for our future generations."
The research results contained in the Education Green Building
SmartMarket Report were drawn from two phases of study. The first phase
looked at the perceptions of "green leaders" as defined as owners and
facility managers/operators of green schools and universities. The second
phase was a survey of a broader representation of school construction
professionals as represented by the membership of CEFPI. Though the key
results (above) were consistent among both phases of studies, there were
some differences. For example, green leaders see factors such as
"publicity," "mission statement incorporation" and "staff demand" as
important triggers, indicating their view of increased green building
coming from factors that make the process for green building easier. On the
other hand, the broader educational facility planning community emphasizes
important triggers as ones that are measurable outcomes of green building
such as "increased health & well-being," "energy cost increases" and
"productivity benefits."
For more information on the Education Green Building SmartMarket Report
or other MHC studies, go to http://www.analyticsstore.construction.com,
email construction_intelligence@mcgraw-hill.com or call (800) 591-4462.
About McGraw-Hill Construction:
McGraw-Hill Construction connects people, projects and products across
the design and construction industry. For more than a century, the Company
has remained North America's leading provider of construction project
information, plans and specifications, product information, industry news,
and industry trends and forecasts. Backed by the power of Dodge, Sweets,
Architectural Record, Engineering News-Record and 11 Regional Publications,
McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers within the
$4.6 trillion global construction community. To learn more, visit:
http://www.construction.com.
About The McGraw-Hill Companies
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a leading
global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the
financial services, education and business information markets through
leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education,
BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than
280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2006 were $6.3 billion. Additional
information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.
|
