According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, energy consumption from the operation of commercial buildings accounts for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. In a typical office building, energy represents 30 percent of operating costs — its single largest and most manageable operating expense.

An authoritative RICS research report titled Doing Well By Doing Good? An Analysis of the Financial Performance of Green Office Buildings in the USA provided the following takeout:

• Buildings with a "green rating" command rental rates that are roughly three percent higher per square foot than otherwise identical buildings.
• All other things being equal, premiums in effective rents are even higher - above six percent. •Selling prices of green buildings are higher by about 16 percent.
• At prevailing capitalization rates, conversion of the average non-green rental building to an equivalent green building would add about $5.5 million in market value.
• Conversion of the average non-green office building sold in 2004-2007 to a green building would add $5.7 million in market value.
• Variations in the premium for green office buildings are systematically related to their energy-saving characteristics (eg. an increase of ten percent in the site energy utilization efficiency of a green building is associated with a twenty basis point increase in effective rent - over and above the six percent premium for a labeled building).
• Further calculations suggest that a one dollar savings in energy costs from increased thermal efficiency yields roughly eighteen dollars in the increased valuation of an Energy-Star certified building.
  
  Note: With the House Passage of Energy and Climate Legislation, going Green is no longer a choice.

(Click Here to access our Green Resources Page).