Investigating the financial benefits of green buildings

Abstract

Due to the deterioration of the Earth’s health and the uncertainty in terms of climate changes, issues such as the economy, food, water and energy supplies, have become worldwide phenomena. Buildings have a huge role to play in addressing the environmental concerns as they play a contributing role in gas emissions, waste disposal and energy use. Although green buildings are regarded as the future, there is a perception, even amongst experts in the property sector that the upfront costs of building green are substantially higher when compared to building conventional, which limits the construction of green buildings. This paper is aimed at investigating whether building green leads to financial benefits which will ultimately provide the differentiator when it comes down to a final decision whether to invest in green buildings or not. The results of the paper showed that experts in the property sector agreed that the concepts applied in green buildings lead to long-term financial savings. This justifies the statement that a realistic comparison between the total costs of building green versus building conventional can only be achieved over the lifecycle of a building. It also finds that there is awareness and understanding of the financial benefits associated with green buildings which implies that green buildings have good growth potential.