High Perceived Cost of Green Persists, Says Survey

Many observers want to know where the green building market is heading, but if anyone is studying it in a truly scientific way, they’re keeping the results to themselves. Online surveys are a common way of gathering data on the cheap, and results from three such surveys were released at Greenbuild 2007 in Chicago in November. Despite small sample sizes and some vague questions, the results offer a reality check for the green building market.

All three surveys were conducted online, which means that those who have a strong position to share are most likely to respond—though in some cases the researchers offered incentives to offset this trend. Only one report, from

Building Design & Construction (BD&C) magazine, provided its response rates. The other two—one from Autodesk and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the other from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and Real Estate Media—each had just under 400 respondents from an undisclosed sample size.