Share this on

Clients Drive Green Building in Autodesk/AIA Survey

The survey also found that 42 percent of architects reported clients asking for green building elements, with 47 percent of clients implementing these practices in their own work.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 12/3/2008 12:00:00 AM

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor and Administration Center, AIA Committee on the Environment Finalist. Photo by Erica Stoller.

Most major architectural firms are committed to sustainable design, but the 2008 edition of the Autodesk/AIA Green Index indicates that these sensibilities are also rubbing off on their customers.

Clients are, in fact, the chief driver of green building. Sixty-six percent of architects surveyed by the software developer and the American Institute of Architects cited client demand as the primary motivation for green building. Forty-two percent of architects polled affirmed that their clients specifically request green elements for the majority of projects. Additionally, 47 percent say clients are implementing these practices in their own work, an increase of 15 percent over last year.

Meanwhile, architects believe the primary reasons that clients are requesting green buildings are reduced operating costs (60 percent), marketing (52 percent), and market demand (21 percent, up 10 points from the 2007 study).

Similar surveys conducted by Autodesk in Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom found that the primary factors driving green building differed by region. The United Kingdom and Japan cited regulatory requirements (75 percent and 64 percent, respectively), while architects in Italy pointed to rising energy costs (70 percent).

Released in Boston last month during GreenBuild, the annual survey aims to measure the amount of sustainable design practiced by AIA members. Christine McEntee, chief executive officer of the AIA, says this year's survey results are encouraging because they show that clients, and the market at large, realize the “bottom-line benefits of sustainable design."