The U.S. Green Building Council announced last month a major research commitment covering energy and water security; global climate change prevention; indoor environmental quality; and, passive survivability in the face of natural and man-made disasters. The $1 million research pledge reflects a commitment to advancing a sustainable built environment within a generation, notes USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. “The industry needs to take giant steps forward in construction, renovation and operation practices if we want to see large-scale improvements to health and environmental conditions in this generation.”

“Research will help us advance the practice of building science,” adds USGBC Board Member Vivian Loftness, of Carnegie Mellon University. “It should also track and validate as quickly as possible the profound connection between green buildings and human health and productivity. We need research that proves the business case so profoundly that an organization's commitment to building green becomes the easiest and best operational decision they can make.”

The commitment comes on the heels of the Council's recently published Green Building Research Funding: An Assessment of Current Activity in the United States, which found that research related to high-performance green building practices and technologies is underfunded by all sectors. Using this work as its basis, the USGBC Research Committee will publish a national green building research agenda this fall that identifies key research areas for advancing building performance and market transformation.

“Building operation consumes 40% of energy and 71% of the electricity in the U.S., and accounts for 39% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions,” says USGBC Vice President of Research and Education Peter Templeton. “It's critical that the building sector makes exponential performance improvements and research, development and deployment activities a top priority.”