Position

Green Building Initiative Principles and Market Approach

The following points summarize the core principles and market approach of the Green Building Initiative as it seeks to achieve its mission of affecting widespread adoption of green building practices:

• The GBI's most significant market opportunity is among mainstream builders, designers, and developers who, for the most part, do not yet practice green building;
• To increase adoption among these mainstream audiences, GBI stakeholders believe that multiple, credible and practical green building programs are necessary to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding construction market;
• Legitimate and practical tools, such as the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system for commercial buildings and local Home Builder Association (HBA) green building programs, are specifically designed to meet the needs of builders, designers, and developers in a comprehensive yet cost-effective manner;
• Whereas existing green building programs address the needs of a portion of the buildings-related market, tools such as Green Globes and local HBA programs can help expand green building and add to the total percentage of buildings built in an energy-efficient and environmentally sound manner;
• In addition to serving the needs of the majority of mainstream builders, designers, and developers, GBI's standards development efforts stimulate competition and help to drive the improvement and innovation of all green building assessment systems;
• As these systems continue to evolve, the benefits to builders, designers, developers, governments and the environment will increase;
• GBI is committed to the principles of consensus, transparency and balance, and is a recognized Standard Development Organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI);
• GBI supports this commitment to ANSI in various ways, most recently by filing our intention to develop Green Globes as an American National Standard;
• Therefore, while the GBI prefers market-driven approaches to regulatory ones, we believe that any government initiatives mandating or referencing green building standards at any level should include all major rating systems to help ensure builder choice and adoption.
• To help support the adoption and growth of Green Globes in the marketplace, the GBI created the Green Globes Professional and Green Globes Assessor personnel certification programs to ensure that trained individuals are available to assist in the rating and assessment process.