ABSTRACT
The business case for commercial green buildings in 2007 can be simply stated: if your next project is not a green building, one that is certified by a national third-party rating system, it will be functionally outdated the day it is completed and very likely to underperform the market as time passes. 1 That bold statement was echoed by a well-known real estate expert, who bluntly claimed that trillions of dollars of commercial property around the world would soon drop in value because green buildings are going mainstream and would render those properties obsolete. 2 In a meeting in Sydney, Australia, in February 2007, the head of Australia’s Property Council, representing the entire development industry, claimed that no large developer in that country would ever start another project that wasn’t going to be at least LEED Silver (Australia 4 Green Stars) certified. 3
