Among the most often asked questions in the green building arena is whether the additional upfront cost associated with green construction or green retrofits will pay off. To date it has been a very difficult question to answer as there has been no comprehensive database which has demonstrated the savings associated with "greening" either new construction or a retrofit and instead the available data has been based on limited white papers and isolated studies. A recent article by the New York Times Showing The Benefits of "Green" Retrofits highlighted the efforts of Deutsche Bank to finance the creation of a public database of several hundred buildings in New York City which have implemented green retrofits. As Gary Hattem, President of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation has stated:

"Retrofitting buildings is considered the low-hanging fruit in carbon reduction, but despite its simplicity, it is still not mainstream, the largest obstacle to making these practices go mainstream is data that will convince building owners to retrofit their properties and at the same time increase underwriters’ willingness to finance the projects.”

Hopefully the development of a database such as that being developed will show the community at large that green retrofits are worthwhile investments and more individuals and institutions will begin implementing such retrofits.