Impact of green building implementation to project budget

Abstract

Global environmental problems such as climate change, resource and water de pletion became more and more visible in the last decade and they deeply affect the future of the humankind. Buildings have a large impact in these problems because they consume a considerable part of produced energy and clean water in the world. Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmen tally responsible and resource-efficient. Green buildings offer a solution to the global problems and thus they became more popular in recent years via established green building certification systems. However, there are still questions in the construction sector about the effects of green buildings to project budget. This study is based on the investigation of the factors creating impact on the green building project budget in Turkey. Four LEED Gold and Platinum certified buildings are examined as case studies. Considering the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the impact of green building implementation on the project budget are affected by the level of desired green building certification, scope of construction work (whether it is core and shell or fully built building) and qualities of initial concept design before considera tion of certification. Also, water and energy efficiency goals can be met with different strategies which can lead different green building cost impact. Concept design of a green building should consider green building strategies as early as possible to achieve a cost effective green building.