HOK, a global architectural firm, made a study of the firm’s profitability on 15 green projects found that they were, on average, 25% more profitable than conventional projects. There is a widespread belief that sustainable design is more time-consuming for the design team and therefore not as profitable as conventional projects. But that isn’t the case. They discovered that the sustainable projects did better than the average for conventional projects completed during the same period. The study did not look into the reasons for this difference, but Lazarus speculates that integrated design helps the firm reduce costs while delivering a better product. Other possible factors include more motivated clients, a more focused design team, or a higher fraction of institutional projects with bigger budgets.
Thanks to tip from TreeHugger
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