While interest in formal LEED certification may be down in the US, interest in green building is higher than ever, which more and more businesses showing confidence in the sector.
In catering to this new wave of green building enthusiasts, the US Green Building Council has released the Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG), a tool that encourages transparency in the sector, sheds like on current trends and their ability to perform.
“The Green Building Information Gateway is a visual, GIS based, tool for understanding where green buildings are located and how they are performing,” the USGBC said of the new tool. “Currently, the Green Building Information Gateway tracks all LEED buildings (via their scorecard) and all Energy Star buildings (via their score) in the US. By aggregating and providing tools to analyze this data, the GBIG could have large implications for green building policy, as well as the market for energy and water efficient technologies.”
According to Chris Pyke, vice president of research for the USGBC on the launch of the newly released tool, green endeavours must now evolve with the industry and consumers in order to truly maximise the potential of what the sector has to offer.
“The launch of GBIG represents years of research, information gathering, and testing, and has been a true labor of love,” Pyke said. “Green building has gone from an era of firsts, to a global movement, connected by data.”
Already, the web-based platform is serving as an example of, and shining a spotlight on, the growing trend of collaborative technological tools and how they bring together the various facets of the green building industry. As Pyke states, green building as a sector has lost much of its mystery. The need now, throughout the global market, revolves around connectivity and collaboration.
In achieving this goal, true mainstreaming of green practices can be achieved.
