China claims first spot in Top 10 Countries for LEED rankings

Dive Brief:

The U.S. Green Building Council has released its list of 10 countries outside of the U.S. that made the most progress this year in sustainable building design, construction and market conversion.
China came out on top with 373 million square feet of LEED-certified space, followed by Canada, India, Brazil and the Republic of Korea.
The United States still dominates the global LEED market, which totals more than 15 billion square feet over more than 82,000 commercial projects in 160 countries.

Dive Insight:

Last year at the COP21 climate conference in Paris, the USGBC committed to increasing its LEED- and EDGE-certified space by 5 billion square feet by 2021. According to the organization, buildings account for more than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and building green is a way to reduce the severity of climate change.

In another ambitious initiative, the World Green Building Council upped the ante and set a goal of 100% net-zero buildings by 2050. The organization said it would organize international Green Building Councils to develop net-zero certification programs for new buildings as well as existing ones. Net-zero buildings produce as much energy as they consume, and the process usually incorporates some alternative energy source like solar power.

A Dodge Data & Analytics World Green Building Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report indicated that the international green building market is expected to double every three years. In addition, an August report from Zion Research projected that the worldwide green building materials market will reach $255 billion by 2020. In 2014, North America represented 40% of a then-$127.5 billion green materials market.

The USGBC’s complete Top 10 Countries for LEED: