It isn't often that a new idea comes along that will fundamentally alter the way we think about design and construction. As it continues to gain momentum, the green building movement appears to be such an idea.

Green design and construction enables us to look beyond the usual paradigms of time, money and quality by using the green-built environment as a way to work toward improving our planet.

The number of green buildings in the United States is increasing — as of March 2009, the United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED©) program has 18,468 LEED registered commercial projects and 2,384 LEED certified commercial projects. This continued growth seems to be minimally impacted by the current economic environment.

The market's resilience may be traced to two primary causes (1) an increasing awareness that green buildings tend to be more economical to operate, and (2) the implementation of new government policies that will help promote or perhaps mandate eco-friendly features. For example, when President Obama recently announced some of his administration's green initiatives, they included modernizing and greening schools, greening federal buildings, weatherization assistance programs, energy efficiency and conservation block grants, greening public housing, and green job training.

While the numerous potential benefits of building green have been the subject of a great deal of news media coverage, the risks associated with green building have received less visibility. Nonetheless, an understanding of potential exposures, as well as approaches to manage and mitigate them, is critical both to the economic viability of the green-built environment and to maintain the momentum behind the green design and construction movement.

With this in mind, the Marsh Green Building Team held a series of four interactive forums in major U.S. cities to identify the most significant risks associated with green design and construction, based upon feedback from those in a position to understand these risks the best: the owners, builders and designers of green buildings. This report presents the findings from our forums, as well as some of the potential solutions to the risk issues identified.

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