According to a recent report from Navigant Research, the worldwide market for green building materials will grow from $116 billion in 2013 to $254 billion by 2020.

The report also found that while the downturn in construction activity significantly affected materials producers of all products alike, the green buildings market appears to have slipped less than the buildings market as a whole. That is, demand for green buildings has remained relatively robust during the global recession.

The use of environmental product standards and life cycle assessments, along with product and company reporting, will be significant in shaping the green materials market, making environmental performance more measurable and more transparent. For example, increasing use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), supported by LEED and BREEAM (common in Europe), will help clarify benefits and make selecting green products easier, it says.

NRMCA is taking a leading role in helping our industry shift its business toward green building. The NRMCA EPD Program recently certified the first Environmental Product Declaration for Concrete in North America. You can find it here. The NRMCA EPD Program was established in 2012 to enable its members to meet new requirements in LEED v4 and the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products. 

NRMCA will be offering free Webinars on EPDs:

• Wednesday, May 22: noon - 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. Click here to register.

• Wednesday, June 19, noon - 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. Click here to register.