Canada is the world leader in LEED buildings per capita, according to a new report that quantifies the benefits yielded from the move to green building. The Green Building in Canada: Assessing the Market Impacts & Opportunities study from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and The Delphi Group shows that green facilities generated $23.45 billion to the country’s GDP and employed over 297,000 workers in 2014. The report also notes that this is a larger number of jobs than is provided by Canada’s oil and gas extraction, mining, and forestry industries combined.
LEED’s market penetration in Canada has grown over the past ten years, from 0.8% from 2004-2009 to 10.7% from 2009-2014, with 22% of all new commercial structures and 30% of new institutional buildings certified over the past five years.
The authors also provide suggestions to help expand the reach of sustainable facilities even further, including more investment in R&D for building technologies, closing the gap between design and performance, more focus on continuing education and industry training, and encouraging the implementation of new government policy and incentives.
