Growth in global demand for ‘green’ office buildings slows amid Trump policies | Commercial property

Growth in global demand for “green” office buildings has slowed after Donald Trump’s attack on environmental protection policies led to a decline in interest in the US, according to a survey of construction industry professionals.

Occupants and investors in North America and South America expressed significantly lower growth in demand for green commercial buildings, according to a survey of members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics); this “appears to be a response to a change in US policy focus”. Reported demand in the rest of the world also fell, although not as sharply.

Residential and commercial buildings together will account for 34% of global carbon emissions in 2023. UN Environment Program. Although the majority of these emissions came from heating, cooling and powering buildings, about a fifth came from construction.

He said there is UN “a critical need for accelerated action in the building sector to achieve global climate targets”. However, Rics research has found that global construction industry professionals are experiencing slower growth in demand.

Green buildings can use a variety of techniques to reduce their environmental impact, from using materials that reduce high-carbon concrete to reducing water use, reducing heat loss through windows, and using renewable energy. In particular, energy efficiency improvements also help reduce operating costs.

Nicholas Maclean, acting chairman of the Rics, said: “It seems to me that what we are seeing now may be a glimpse.

“The people who will use these buildings want them to be sustainable. Frankly, everyone knows it’s the right thing to do.”

He added that green office buildings tend to have a “competitive advantage” in attracting higher rents, especially due to demand from large-scale corporate tenants.

There were still more U.S. respondents to the survey reporting increased interest in sustainable commercial buildings. However, the balance of construction professionals reporting increased demand across the continent fell sharply from 25% to 11%.

Outside North and South America, the balance reporting growth in demand was 40%; That’s still down from 48% in 2021, the survey’s first year, but well above the U.S.

Rics sustainability analyst Kisa Zehra said government policy and regulations had a “huge impact on market confidence”. The Trump administration has made a concerted effort to dismantle a wide range of environmental protections that have been put in place. Republican and Democratic predecessorsweakens confidence in green standards.

Rics also highlighted the decline in the number of construction industry professionals measuring embodied carbon, such as the carbon emitted in the construction of materials such as steel, glass and concrete for their projects, or in the construction process itself. Forty-six percent of construction professionals reported not measuring embodied carbon; This rate was 34% the previous year. Only 16% of respondents said carbon measurement meaningfully informs material choices in project design.