This week, I have been morbidly fascinated with stories about the state of the economy and construction.  Not surprisingly, the construction downturn has dramatically decreased the number of projects registering for green building certification in 2010. 

The Business Journal recently came out with an excellent analysis of LEED registrations in 2010 and the results were not pretty:

"Where there were 367 LEED projects registered in North Carolina in all of 2009, only 57 were added to the pipeline in the first five months of 2010. Nationally, there were 10,498 registered projects in 2009, and only 3,071 so far in 2010.

One major cause for the drop is undoubtedly the overall contraction in commercial construction. According to estimates by industry research firm McGraw-Hill Construction, commercial and industrial projects in North Carolina fell by 19 percent in 2009, and are expected to drop by another 16 percent in 2010.

LEED registrations were still increasing in 2009 even as that broader decline took hold, but many of those projects were likely already far along in the planning process by then."

Predictions that the economic downturn would not effect the green building industry are not panning out.

In coming weeks, we will be discussing construction industry statistics and likely recovery scenarios.  Unfortunately, it’s not going to get better any time soon.  

Photo Credit: Hillarie