The Cost of Constructing Green Buildings in the UK (2014)

Constructing Green Buildings Dissertation – Green buildings tend to be associated with a healthy working environment, energy efficiency, recycled materials, flexible spaces, innovative designs, cutting edge construction technologies, and high development costs, just to mention a few. To a great extent, the aforementioned perceptions have emerged as the basis upon which different stakeholders understand sustainable properties. Put simply, they represent the way in which many people define green buildings.

While these opinions play a useful role of creating a basic appreciation of sustainable properties, they actually do very little in terms of forming a deep and thorough understanding. In fact, these views are the main source of misconceptions on green buildings. The chief culprit in this regard is the construction costs. Thus, a highly inaccurate and dominant image that has emerged over time is that green buildings have exorbitant development costs compared to conventional buildings.

The issue of construction costs appeals mostly to the critical stakeholders for the real estate industry, namely developers and investors. It is the decisions which are made by these key market participants which have been behind the continued growth of the green buildings sector. Knowledge about construction costs is very important in the making of investment choices. In line with this thought, the most critical question which is raised by many would be real estate investors is how much does it cost to construct green buildings?

This is not surprising, given that the construction costs for green buildings loom larger than the benefits. Therefore, the ultimate determination of whether or not to invest in a property is heavily influenced by costs. This study is based on the data obtained from two main sources which have information on green buildings that are found in the UK. The complete list of buildings which adhere to green standards is accessed from the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methods (BREEAM) data base. The Building Cost Information Services (BCIS) is the second source of data which is used in developing this study. It complements the data from BREAM by providing much more detailed figures regarding the costs of both BREEAM certified and uncertified properties.


  • 12,000 words – 44 pages in length
  • Excellent use of literature
  • Good analysis of subject area
  • Well written throughout
  • Ideal for construction management students

1 – Introduction

2 – The Green Buildings Market in the UK
History and Development
Current Market Conditions
Previous Empirical Research
Overview of Construction Costs

3 – Methodology
Model Specification

4 – Data Results
Data Sources
Data Set
Control Variables
Descriptive Statistics
Building Characteristics
Procurement Method
Total Building Costs

5 – Results
Robustness Checks

6 – Discussion
Limitations of the Study
Future Research

7 – Conclusion

References

Appendix
BREEAM Footprint
UK National Unemployment Data

Constructing Green Buildings Dissertation
Constructing Green Buildings Dissertation

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