The Top 50 Green Construction Companies Revealed

New List by Construction Digital Reveals the Top Green Firms


Construction Digital reveals the top 50 green construction companies.

Who are the top 50 global green construction companies? It is revealed in a list of the 50 leaders in green and profile the top five.


1. SKANSKA
Skanska wrote the book on green—literally. The company published Green Thinking, which outlines its green initiative, provides global case studies, delves into the concept of a ‘Green Society’ and provides ways to conserve energy and water and reduce carbon emissions. The Swedish company’s green initiative focuses on three points: 1. Technology is currently available to pursue green construction, 2. It’s the right thing to do and is good for business, and 3. It’s possible to save money by building green. The company provides an interactive view of a Green City, while providing specific case studies of how certain green technologies—from construction materials recycling to green roofs—were incorporated to each project. To improve the overall sustainability of the projects, managers work with local stakeholders and decision makers from concept to completion. With offices in the United States, Europe and South America, Skanska is positioned as the global leader in green construction.

2. BALFOUR BEATTY
Based in the United Kingdom, Balfour Beatty has created a global presence in the construction industry and infrastructure sector over the last century. The company has devised a 2020 Vision to implement its sustainability strategy throughout its global operations by 2020. According to the 2020 Vision, “We believe that profitable markets, healthy communities and environmental limits are not competing interests; they are shared outcomes that closely align with one another. In order to be a successful and profitable company, we need to realise that alignment.” Balfour Beatty sees green building and sustainability as a value-added service to its stakeholders. It has devised a plan to work together with customers, investors and local project stakeholders to ensure that its sustainability vision becomes a reality.

3. TURNER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
The largest green builder in America, Turner is has a long-standing commitment to the environment and sustainability. The company has over 1100 LEED Accredited Professionals on staff and has completed well over $3.1 billion in projects that have been LEED Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Additionally, Turner uses an online Construction Waste Recycling Reporting System that not only creates a paperless reporting environment, but has also diverted over 250,000 tons of construction waste from jobsites since 2005.

4. THE HASKELL COMPANY
One of the first members of the United States Green Building Council at its inception in 2000, Haskell has become a leader in the green building industry in all sectors of the business. The company has completed projects at every level of LEED, from base certification to Platinum and employs over 160 LEED Accredited Professionals (APs). Haskell has maintained the top spot as a green industrial and manufacturing design firm and contractor on several lists for multiple consecutive years.

5. THIESS
As Australia’s leading construction services contractor, Thiess takes sustainability and the triple bottom line—people, planet, profit—to heart. With a commitment to energy efficiency, the company signed onto the Australian Greenhouse Challenge Plus program. Though Thiess faces a unique challenge as a construction and mining contractor, it remains committed to reducing its footprint while maintaining its role as an environmental steward, carefully monitoring energy, water, waste, noise and air quality.

6. McCarthy Building Companies
7. VINCI
8. Taisei Corporation
9. The Yates Companies
10. Gilbane Building Co
11. Bechtel Corporation
12. Odebrecht
13. Hunt Construction Group
14. Tutor Perini Corp
15. Webcor Builders
16. Hochtief Construction
17. Mortenson Construction
18. Austin Industries
19. Suffolk construction
20. Kraus-Anderson Construction Co
21. DPR Construction
22. Bovis Lend Lease
23. JE Dunn Construction Group
24. Laing O'Rourke (BMC)
25. Holder Construction Co
26. Structure Tone
27. Swinerton Incorporated
28. Walbridge
29. Manhattan Construction Group
30. The Walsh Group
31. Forrester construction Company
32. McGough Construction
33. Clark Group
34. Hensel Phelps Construction
35. Whiting-Turner Contracting
36. PCL Construction Enterprises
37. HITT Contracting Inc.
38. Hathaway Dinwiddie
39. BAM Construct UK
40. Willmot Dixon Group
41. Carillion PLC
42. Broad Construction Services
43. Hoffman Construction Company
44. Harper Construction
45. Walton Construction
46. WDS Construction, Inc.
47. Mascaro Construction
48. Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc.
49. Nabholz Construction Corp
50. Linbeck Group LLC

Proposed LEED Update Open For Public Comment

Today, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) opened up the proposed update to the LEED green building rating system for its first public comment. The public comment period, which will close on December 31, 2010, is the next step in the continuous improvement process and the on-going development cycle of the LEED program.

“Continuous improvement of LEED is in the DNA of USGBC and its regular evolution is necessary to continue to move market transformation forward.” said Scot Horst, Senior Vice President of LEED, USGBC. “As green building expertise advances and practice evolves, so does LEED, providing innovative solutions to the challenges and opportunities in the building industry. LEED continues to be the catalyst for immediate and measureable improvement.”

The proposed update builds on the foundation of LEED 2009, including the alignment and weighting of credits and further advances the “bookshelf” framework where credits are applied to specific building types. In addition to the continued evolution of ideas, many of which were first captured even as LEED 2009 was being finalized, the draft of LEED that is opening for public comment places increased emphasis on integrated process and building performance.

“Additionally USGBC is enhancing the process we use to collect and respond to stakeholder feedback on the ideas presented in the public comment drafts of LEED,” added Horst.

Besides the usual public comment web pages at www.usgbc.org, USGBC will also take feedback from projects testing pilot credits, use input from the from a moderated forum dedicated to discussing evolution of LEED, and comments from various webinars that will be held with key stakeholders. USGBC intends for this public comment process to be much more generative in nature, and expects a wide-ranging dialog throughout the process.

USGBC will be holding a webcast for media to learn more on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010, at 3 p.m. EST.

To participate:

1. Go to

https://usgbc.webex.com/usgbc/j.php?ED=126900487&UID=1092117517&PW=NMmNmMTI2MzQz&RT=

MiMxMQ%3D%3D

2. If requested, enter your name and e-mail address.

3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: Building10

4. Click "Join".

-------------------------------------------------------

To join the audio conference only

-------------------------------------------------------

Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-866-469-3239; Access code: 757 604 841

U.S. Green Building Council

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.

With a community comprising 80 local affiliates, more than 16,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.

Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.

LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system has transformed commercial and residential building practices by providing the leading tool to create buildings that are environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous. Over 36,000 commercial projects are currently participating in LEED rating systems for the design, construction and operation of green buildings, comprising over 7.1 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 114 countries. In addition, some 8,000 homes have been certified under the LEED for Homes rating system, with nearly 30,000 more homes registered. By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

Read More

Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret.) to Give Keynote Address at the Greenbuild Conference

The U.S. Green Building Council announced that former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin L. Powell will give the keynote address at USGBC’s annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo being held Nov.17-19, 2010, in Chicago, Ill.

“General Powell has made another career of sharing his lessons of leadership.” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of USGBC. “His keen insights and global perspective are especially relevant to our movement in these times of great challenge and change. He exemplifies that leadership is about more than a title: It’s about taking charge during times of great crisis.”

General Powell is a retired four-star general. He previously served as National Security Advisor under President Ronald Regan and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed General Powell to be Secretary of State, a position he held until 2005. In addition, for the past decade, General Powell has committed his time, energy and leadership to improving the lives of America’s young people as founding Chairman of America’s Promise Alliance — an organization that works with over 400 partner organizations to provide
needed resources that build better lives for America’s youth.

General Powell has demonstrated his exemplary leadership through his public service and private life. He has broken racial barriers as the first African-American Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has received several distinguished military and civilian honors including two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and the Soldier’s Medal. General Powell also founded the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at his alma mater, the City College of New York and has served on the boards of various non-profits.

As a sign of General Powell’s wide-ranging leadership and the powerful message he will bring as Greenbuild’s opening keynote speaker, a LEED Platinum affordable housing building in his childhood neighborhood bears his name. The General Colin L. Powell Apartments in the South Bronx, N.Y., is a cutting-edge 50-unit multifamily project resulting from a partnership between Habitat for Humanity-New York City and Blue Sea Development. General Powell participated in the LEED certification ceremony.

In addition to General Powell’s keynote address, Greenbuild 2010 will feature an array of inspiring speakers and more than 100 education sessions and the world's largest exhibit hall devoted to green building with over 900 exhibiting companies with over 1,800 booths showcasing the latest in innovative, cutting-edge products and services

For more information, visit http://www.greenbuildexpo.org/.

GREENGUARD's Exhibit at HEALTHCARE DESIGN.10 to Help Architects and Designers Specify Healthier Products

Architects and designers who visit the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute's first-ever HEALTHCARE DESIGN.10 exhibit next week will have the opportunity to learn how low-emitting products and materials can help create healthier, more sustainable healing environments.

The GREENGUARD exhibit, which draws attention to the potential health hazards of product emissions and invisible indoor air contaminants, will also identify ways that architects and designers can more easily and efficiently specify low-emitting products.

"Given that many people in healthcare environments suffer from weakened immune systems and/or debilitating respiratory conditions, such as asthma, the need to address indoor air quality in healthcare environments is more critical now than ever before," says Paul Bates, market outreach manager for the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute.  "There's no doubt that airborne chemical exposure from product emissions can exacerbate existing health conditions and can even trigger new problems. If the goal of a healthcare environment is to promote healing, it is incumbent upon architects, designers, and facility managers to ensure that the products they use in those environments are low-emitting."

Hazardous airborne chemicals commonly found in healthcare environments include formaldehyde, benzene, methyl methacrylate, and hexane—all of which can off-gas from healthcare-related products. Many are known or suspected carcinogens, reproductive toxins, developmental toxins, and/or physical irritants, and can be particularly harmful to the sick and the elderly.

Products that have achieved GREENGUARD Certification have been independently, scientifically tested to evaluate their chemical emissions and ensure that they meet some of the world's most stringent health-based requirements. As a result, they're recognized in the Green Guide for Healthcare, the healthcare sector's first quantifiable, sustainable design toolkit that integrates environmental and health-based practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of healthcare facilities.

"Why risk exposing patients, doctors, nurses, and staff to potentially dangerous contaminants in a place where they're supposed to be healing?" Bates says. "By choosing the right products—those that have been independently assessed for their impact on indoor air quality—you can be certain that the healing environment you're creating is healthier for everyone involved."

To learn more about GREENGUARD Certified products at HEALTHCARE DESIGN.10, visit Booth Number 258. HCD.10 runs Nov. 13 through Nov. 16. For more information, visit www.hcd10.com.

ABC to Host Green Building Symposium

ABC is holding a Green Building Symposium in conjunction with Ecobuild America on Dec. 7. The one-day conference takes place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. 

The conference will include several sessions on green building topics including; “Green Building Outlook: Trends and Opportunities for Sustainable Design and Construction During Economic Recovery;” “Best Practice: Using Pervious Concrete for Managing Storm Water;” “Chicken or the Egg: Using the IPD Process to Drive Cultural/Generational Evolution;” and “Green Building: Codes, Regulations, Process and Legal Exposure.” The conference will conclude with a reception for networking opportunities. 

ABC members can register for this event at www.GreenConstructionAtWork.com/Symposium . Members will need to register for the Tuesday day pass in order to attend ABC’s conference. The cost of registration is $245 with a 15 percent discount for ABC members. In order to obtain the 15 percent discount, ABC members must enter discount code ABC15TEX.   For more information on ABC’s Green Building Symposium, please visit www.GreenConstructionAtWork.com/Symposium.  

For any further questions, please contact Jen Huber, huber@abc.org.  

Code for Sustainable Construction

The Portland Cement Association (PCA) and the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have developed High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0. The criteria are written in mandatory language that amends and appends the International Code Council International Building Code (IBC).

Download High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0 

Download Power Point Presentation 

Download White Paper

Experts Join for Green Building Round Table Discussion at Balsam Mountain Preserve

D&J Properties, a green consultancy group, is bringing together a panel of green building experts from a variety of disciplines to discuss green building practices and options in a Trust Talk, Thursday October 28 starting at 5:30 at the Balsam Mountain Boarding House. Additionally, D &J Properties will host an open house Saturday, October 30, between 2:00 - 6:00 pm at their Balsam Mountain Preserve residence and office.

To attend either the Trust Talk or the Open House, please contact D&J Properties Atlanta office: 770-564-9737.

Designing Out Waste: ‘Pre-cycling’ to Eliminate Waste in Design Phase New

By: Tom Hardiman
Modular Building Institute

The impact of construction and demolition debris on the environment is staggering. More than 135 million tons of debris from construction sites is brought to U.S. landfills every year, making it the single largest source in the waste stream (Source: USGBC White Paper –Planning for Construction Waste). Reducing the amount of waste in a project is an important part of sustainable building and begins with the design process. Choosing alternative methods of construction such as prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication techniques is an effective way to design out waste.

Example of waste on a construction site that gets
sent to landfills. Image courtesy WRAP

According to the Whole Building Design Guide provided by the National Institute of Building Sciences, construction waste reduction is measured by material diverted by the waste stream divided by the total potential waste:

Quantity of materials diverted from the waste stream / Total potential waste quantity
Most efforts by the green building community, however, have focused on recovery, reuse, recycling or diversion of the waste post-construction, rather than reducing waste on the front end, through better management, procurement, and construction practices.
The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating program recognizes and rewards points for waste that is diverted post-construction, but does not address the issue of waste minimization during construction.
In its LEED NC Version 3.0 under MR Credit 2 it says:
Intent: to divert construction and demolition debris from disposal in landfills and incineration facilities. The LEED rating system awards points for diversion of (recycled or salvaged) 50% of debris (1 point) or 75% of the debris (2 points).

This system ignores and potentially punishes a contractor who actually generates less waste to begin with, and some could argue it rewards contractors for generating large amounts of waste to achieve the goal of diverting 50% of waste.

Example:
Consider a typical 2,000 sq. ft. home that generates about 8,000 pounds of waste, or about 4 pounds per square foot - roughly 15% total waste (Source: National Association of Home Builders Deconstruction Series).

Contractor A is able to divert 50% of that waste from the landfill and as a reward, receives 1 LEED point for only sending 4,000 pounds to the landfill.

Suppose Contractor B is resource-efficient and generates 10% waste or 5,333 pounds of waste from the same 2,000 sq. ft. home, but is only able to divert 45% from the landfill. Contractor B sends only 2,933 pounds to the landfill, but LEED does not recognize this effort within its rating system – despite the fact that the contractor sent 26.7% less waste to the landfill on the same home.

Post construction recycling is just one method of reducing the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills. Waste avoidance through lean construction processes and minimization of waste through prefabrication and the use of building information modeling are much more effective techniques.

Modular construction by nature is material and resource-efficient. One of the great economies of modular construction is the ability to assemble repetitive units in controlled conditions. Another is to minimize material waste associated with conventional construction due to weather intrusion and construction site theft. Whole modular units – largely finished prior to arriving at the construction site – can significantly limit construction waste generated at the site and contribute directly to construction site waste management.

Modular construction capitalizes on the ability to move product in controlled manufacturing conditions, and on tight inventory control and project schedules. It is inherently waste conscious and can have minimum site impact if delivered carefully and strategically with respect to site constraints. In addition, since modular builders work in factory controlled environment, they can have many construction projects underway simultaneously in one location, so they are better able to re-inventory materials that may have been allocated to one project, for use in another. With site built construction, a general contractor would send any overage to the recycle or to the dump.

Off-Site Construction offers significant potential to minimize construction waste. Images courtesy Britco Structures.

Modular buildings arrive to a site between 60% to 90% complete and are built of the same materials and to the same codes as buildings constructed by conventional, on-site methods. Further, once assembled, modular buildings are virtually indistinguishable from their typical site-built counterparts. Pictured is High Tech High in Chula Vista, CA by Williams Scotsman. The school is LEED® Gold certified and made of renewable and recycled materials such as sealed lightweight concrete floors and high-density fiberboards.

A report published by the U.K. group, Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) supports the fact that off-site manufacturing processes can help the construction industry reduce waste. Off site manufacture already offers the construction industry benefits in terms of time and cost predictability, health and safety and skills. However, this work shows that there is the potential to make a significant difference to the amount of waste the industry produces (Source: Current Practices and Future Potential in Modern Methods of Construction).

Some of the biggest waste streams in traditional construction are packaging (up to 5%), timber (up to 25%) and plasterboard (up to 36%). Up to a 90% reduction can be achieved by reducing wastes such as wood pallets, shrink wrap, cardboard, plasterboard, timber, concrete, bricks and cement by increasing the use of off-site manufacture and modular construction. WRAP has developed an excellent resource, the “Designing out Waste: A design team guide for buildings” report to help owners and contractors.

Estimates of the levels of site waste reduced using modular construction. Data courtesy WRAP

For example, modular manufacturers have materials delivered to the factory on pallets frequently. However, rather than disposing of the pallets as is common with on site construction, many manufacturers use companies that remove the pallets and even pay a few pennies to makes them available to supplier companies for reuse as is. This direct reuse results in very low embodied energy versus recycling. For modular manufacturers, pallets do not represent part of the waste stream, just a reusable delivery mechanism.
If we as a construction industry are to be serious about waste reduction, doesn’t it make sense to look at both parts of the equation? Why can’t we design out waste to simultaneously minimize the amount of waste generated during construction as well as managing post-construction waste?

About the Author

Tom Hardiman is the Executive Director of the Modular Building Institute (MBI). MBI is the international non-profit trade association representing commercial modular contractors. For more information, visit www.modular.org.

Where are the World's Greenest Buildings

Green building industry leader Jerry Yudelson says that green building has continued to grow worldwide in spite of the global economic crisis and the ongoing credit issues in most countries. The green building consultant is now looking to document how well these projects are doing by looking at ongoing performance data, especially those rated at the highest levels in the various national green building rating systems (e.g., LEED Platinum, BREEAM Outstanding, Six-Star Green Star). “What we’re seeing is that more projects are going green each year, and there is nothing on the horizon that will stop this trend,” explains Jerry Yudelson, the principal of Tucson-based green building consultancy, Yudelson Associates, “but the bigger issue is: how are they performing?” An upcoming book from Yudelson and Ulf Meyer, “The World’s Greenest Buildings: Promise vs. Performance in Sustainable Design,” will be published in Spring 2012 by Routledge Taylor & Francis, a leading global publisher based in London. Yudelson and his co-author, Professor Ulf Meyer (currently teaching at the University of Nebraska), are asking for submissions of top-rated green projects (such as LEED® Platinum in the U.S.) worldwide that are willing to release at least a year’s worth of documented energy and water use.

Projects must be at least 5,000 square meters (or 50,000 square feet) in floor area and have been completed no later than the beginning of 2004. “We want to establish metrics of contemporary practice for building teams to aim at. For example, one possible benchmark might be100-kilowatt hours per square meter per year of primary or source energy use,” said Yudelson. “Only when we know what to aim at can we begin to confidently start reducing carbon emissions from new buildings.” Yudelson has prepared a simple online survey that project owners, managers and architects can use to submit buildings for the authors’ consideration. The survey can be accessed at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/worldsgreenestbuildings. Submission deadline is October 31, 2010.

About Yudelson Associates and Jerry Yudelson Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s leading green building and sustainability consultants. He is the author of 12 green building books and served for two years as Research Scholar for Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building keynote speaker at industry and professional conferences around the world. He chaired the industry’s largest annual show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009. For more information please contact Jerry Yudelson, 520-207-9759, or visit the Yudelson Associates website,http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/.

Building Code for Sustainable Concrete Construction Emphasize ‘Functional Resilience’

Building requirements developed by PCA, IBHS stress durability as well as energy efficiency and other green building requirements

•  

A sustainable building with a higher degree of durability can decrease the amount of materials going to landfills and use of community resources when disasters occur

September 20, 2010

Each year in the United States, more than $35 billion in direct property loss is caused by natural disasters. Yet, while states and municipalities are seeking to adopt ordinances that require “green” or “sustainable” construction, they are overlooking disaster-resistance construction.

To allow local governments to adopt green building codes that address high performance as well as conventional sustainable features, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have developed High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0. The criteria are written in mandatory language that amends and appends the International Code Council International Building Code (IBC).

The document includes the concepts in most other sustainability or green standards like energy, water and material resource conservation, and indoor air quality while enhancing disaster resistance and setting more stringent durability requirements.

“Using these requirements will give forward-thinking communities not just more efficient buildings, but more sustainable communities that have the ability to resist and recover from disasters when they occur,” said Wanda D. Edwards, PE, IBHS director of building code development.

PCA and IBHS have aligned the provisions with the concepts of both the Whole Building Design Guide (wbdg.org) and High Performance Building Council. Enacting and enforcing these provisions provides the basis for designers and owners to obtain certification as a US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NC).

The criteria are organized by chapter and section consistent with the IBC format and is intentionally limited to issues typically within the purview of the building code and zoning and land use officials. There are no requirements for sole source certification or fees that increase the initial project design cost.

“A sustainable building with a higher degree of durability can decrease the amount of materials going to landfills and use of community resources when disasters occur,” Steve Szoke, PCA director of codes and standards, said. “After Hurricane Katrina, more than 44 million cubic yards of building materials and contents were disposed of in landfills. The PCA/IHBS ordinance provides mandatory requirements for increased resistance to natural disasters with the goal of reducing the number of destroyed buildings and protecting property, and saving human life.”

About the IBHS
IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific and educational organization supported by the property insurance industry. The organization works to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other risks to residential and commercial property by conducting research and advocating improved construction, maintenance and preparation practices.

About PCA
Based in Skokie, Ill., the Portland Cement Association represents cement companies in the United States and Canada. It conducts market development, engineering, research, education, and public affairs programs. More information on PCA programs is available at www.cement.org.