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Hpac 1399 Hotel
Hpac 1399 Hotel
Hpac 1399 Hotel
Hpac 1399 Hotel
Hpac 1399 Hotel

USGBC: Hospitality Industry Set for Tremendous Green-Building Growth

Feb. 23, 2016
The USGBC says green construction is outpacing traditional construction and will create 3.3 million-plus jobs and $190.3 billion in labor earnings by 2018.
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The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released its LEED in Motion: Hospitality report, which predicts tremendous growth in green building in, and defines scale-up opportunities for, the hospitality sector.

“Across industries, we are seeing an increase in consumer demand toward sustainability practices, and no industry is better poised to meet these demands than hospitality,” Rick Fedrizzi, chief executive officer and founding chair, USGBC, said. “This growing sector is rapidly adopting green buildings because owners and developers want to enhance their triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.”

The USGBC notes hotels consume natural resources at an extraordinarily high rate, as they are occupied 24 hr a day, seven days a week. Comprising more than 5 billion sq ft of space in the United States alone, they represent an enormous opportunity to transform the impact of the built environment, the organization says.

According to the USGBC, more than 1,400 hotels totaling 638.7 million sq ft of space are participating in the LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, green-building rating program. Of those, more than 300 comprising nearly 109.2 million sq ft are LEED-certified.

A recent study by McGraw Hill Construction says green construction in the hospitality sector increased 50 percent from 2011 to 2013 and now represents 25 percent of all new construction in the sector, while the USGBC’s recent Green Building Economic Impact Study says green construction is outpacing traditional construction and will create more than 3.3 million jobs and $190.3 billion in labor earnings in the United States by 2018.

LEED in Motion: Hospitality is the latest in a series of reports from the USGBC designed to provide a holistic snapshot of the green-building movement in international markets and equip green-building advocates with insight and perspective to better understand the use of the LEED rating system and to make a strong case for sustainable-building activity.

To download LEED in Motion: Hospitality, click here.