Welcome all to the December edition of the Green Building Journal, and our wrap-up of 2010! With the holiday season we are not only scrambling to get projects done but also looking forward to time spent with family and friends.

In this edition of the journal we decided to not only look ahead at what the new year may bring us, but also highlight some great pieces we didn’t get a chance to before. With that said let’s take a look at some of the articles we have in store for you.

To start it off, we’ve put together a list of trends we foresee in 2011. Our team has taken a look at events from the past year and come up with some ideas of what to expect down the road. From improved indoor air quality to more aggressive energy codes, it’s turning out to be an exciting horizon for green building and design. Following that we have an account from Michael Vargas on the state of the solar industry.

Both our federal and state governments have instituted supportive policies aimed at stimulating growth within renewable energy. This has led to the United States taking the number two spot in the photovoltaic solar energy market, right after the industry leader of Germany.

Later on in this edition you will find a detailed look by Eric Bloom on promoting transparency in the building sector. Mr. Bloom drives home the fact that, despite our best efforts, building owners and lenders remain unconvinced on financing green projects due to a lack of evidence. With the increase now of post-retrofit performance information and new policies, he believes we are starting on a path to addressing this problem, and providing more support for financing. A first time author with us, Kagan Ceylan, continues this edition with a look at the lack of support for green buildings internationally, particularly in Russia. This article offers us an interesting view on what other countries think with regards to sustainable construction, and is well worth the read.

While this is a snapshot of what you can find in the journal, dive in and enjoy the articles, blogs, videos and news. Explore the Green Building Pro social media community, engage with other members, and contribute your expertise to collaborate and communicate with other green building professionals.

Green Building Pro is gearing up for 2011, and we want your input on the Green Building Expo Online Event Series. Every month we are offering a new live multi-hour event to educate the community and highlight the latest green products. We are welcoming submissions for speakers interested in participating in our online event series. By participating, you will reach a community dedicated to the green building and design industries. From panel discussions and individual presentations, to the networking lounge and sponsorship hall, the Green Building Expo environment provides a space to learn and connect with like-minded professionals.

We welcome you to join us in our community and attend our monthly online series, either as an attendee, sponsor, speaker or all of the above. Feel free to contact me with your input on our community and Journal editions. I look forward to joining you online in the Green Building Pro community.

Jenica Egan
Editor in Chief
Green Building Journal
Jenica.Egan@SparkInteractive.com
Follow us on Twitter @buildgreenpro

As we prepare to ring in the new year, the Green Building Pro team has created its second annual list of green building trends for 2011. The green building industry is growing by leaps and bounds, despite the recent downturn in the economy. This next year promises to be no different, with a purported rise in construction starts and in construction values. We would like to take a moment to outline some trends we predict for the new year, and in the end would love to hear from you.
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Despite the global financial crisis in 2009, the United States became the second largest photovoltaic (PV) solar energy market in the world, second only to Germany. This growth is credited mainly to the supportive policy implemented by both federal and state governments, particularly the Renewable Energy stimulus package as well as guaranteed financial incentives for the next eight years as introduced by the Obama administration.
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Recently, we’ve begun imagining life in 2050. Two of the biggest factors to consider for those in the building industry are green, renewable forms of energy and rethinking land use. The way these two factors get tied together could shape the next several decades of building.

Despite all our greenest intentions, America is not leading the pack when it comes to renewable energy. European countries are much further along, and Asia is catching up fast. While every country has its own needs and priorities, long-term sustainability in the face of climate change is a global concern. What’s holding us back in the United States? What can we learn from international examples?
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It seems like a no-brainer that a building that has undergone an energy efficient retrofit should be more valuable. Compared to a conventional, less efficient building, a green or efficient building should sell for more because, over the course of its useful life, the building should cost the owner less to operate and provide other benefits such as reduced O&M costs and a hedge against fluctuating energy prices, right?

While this argument works in theory, many building owners, as well as the lenders and appraisers that would help them finance a retrofit, remain unconvinced. Thousands of buildings have undergone retrofits, but the evidence of energy savings has not been tabulated in a way that will influence lenders and appraisers to finance efficiency retrofits. This is a major barrier in the retrofit industry in the U.S. as well as abroad, but two emerging developments – the codification of post-retrofit performance data and the advent of policies that require transparency on building energy consumption – are starting to make inroads toward addressing it.
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Despite the growing interest and publicity about green buildings, the number of such developments in many emerging real estate markets is still trailing behind those of the US and Europe. Compared to the US, which currently has 5,646 LEED certified green buildings1, the number of certified green buildings in most construction markets across the globe is still disappointingly small. For example Russia, which is the leading Eastern European construction market, has only one green building to date certified under LEED. One reason for this is possibly the relatively lower public awareness and government support for green buildings. Particularly, government incentives for green buildings, such as tax breaks and cap-and-trade systems, provide significant stimulus for green building developers in the US. However, in the absence of government support, real estate markets have to create their green building segment and sustain its development based solely on the operational and pricing premiums provided by green buildings.
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2010 has been a pivotal year for “greening” data centers. The drive towards cloud computing and the flood of new digital information has caused mission critical facilities to undergo a true revolution. As IT continues to get more dynamic, there is a renewed emphasis on reducing complexity, streamlining infrastructure and reducing energy costs. By managing efficient data centers, companies will gain tremendous top line and bottom line growth, which is the core goal of mission critical organizations in 2010 and will continue to be the major focus over the next decade.
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I work primarily in the fields of employee engagement and change management so for the last 10 years or more I have been watching a couple of things that we only seem to be recently recognizing as threats to our economy.

The first is the exponentially increasing costs of delivering health care. In 2010 it is estimated that 12% of GDP (gross domestic product) will be spent on delivering health care. At current rates that is expected to climb to over 16% by 2020. There are a couple of things about that that should be concerning you:
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Prefab Architecture is an indispensable resource for architects and designers concerned with off-site construction. Particularly focusing on the task of working with panels, modules, and components, this text starts by analyzing the history of construction methods before presenting the drawbacks to on-site work. The prefab industry is growing rapidly every year, presenting a better choice for the integration of products and processes, reduced material waste, and decreased construction times.
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