Cute but not true. Ask commercial developers, who are increasingly finding that they can design buildings to meet LEED Gold certification and save large amounts of money. Of course there are always unnecessary “frills” that increase costs, but practically all cost-benefit analyses of green buildings show that environmental features usually increase building costs by about 1-2% and end up paying for themselves in 1-4 years by decreasing energy and water costs and operations/maintenance expenditures. For commercial developments, when you factor in productivity gains and reduced medical costs from higher indoor air quality and daylighting, it pays for itself even faster.
As for me, it’s well worth it to pay a little extra to have better quality air and more natural light anyway. Some people might even find those things more important than Brazilian cherry cabinets!
Cute but not true. Ask commercial developers, who are increasingly finding that they can design buildings to meet LEED Gold certification and save large amounts of money. Of course there are always unnecessary “frills” that increase costs, but practically all cost-benefit analyses of green buildings show that environmental features usually increase building costs by about 1-2% and end up paying for themselves in 1-4 years by decreasing energy and water costs and operations/maintenance expenditures. For commercial developments, when you factor in productivity gains and reduced medical costs from higher indoor air quality and daylighting, it pays for itself even faster.
As for me, it’s well worth it to pay a little extra to have better quality air and more natural light anyway. Some people might even find those things more important than Brazilian cherry cabinets!