Economic sustainability of green buildings: a comparative analysis of green vs non-green

Abstract

Purpose In Sri Lanka, a limited number of buildings have been certified for incorporation of green features and the reasons are attributed to green building investors who continue to perceive that green buildings are expensive. Further, the green building investors fail to appreciate the subsequent benefits received by those buildings during the operational phase. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare the life cycle cost (LCC) of green certified industrial manufacturing buildings with a similar form of the conventional buildings to establish the economic sustainability of green buildings. Design/methodology/approach The study involved a comparative case study analysis of two green buildings and a similar natured conventional building. The data required to perform the LCC analysis were extracted through documentary analysis. Findings The comparative analysis shows that the construction cost of a green industrial manufacturing building is 37 per cent higher than that of a similar natured conventional building while operation, maintenance and the end life cost of green buildings result in 28, 22 and 11 per cent savings, respectively. This results in an overall cost saving of 21 per cent in green buildings. Originality/value The current study provides an assessment of the total LCC of green industrial manufacturing buildings. In Sri Lanka, green industrial manufacturing buildings offer LCC saving of 21 per cent over its lifetime compared to similar natured conventional buildings. Thus, comparative analyses would enable green investors to make informed decisions before commissioning their investment in green facilities and thereby promote sustainable construction in Sri Lanka.

Optimization of Green Building Design Processes: Case Studies within the European Union

“…The first two cases (#1 and #2) were publicly funded. Hence, the time and sustainability variables were often sacrificed to the benefit of the cost variable [22,25]. Moreover, in such cases, often the time variable appeared to be considered as the least important of the three.…”

“…Notably, in terms of absolute values, the projects that suffered the greatest cost variance were the ones in which the variable "cost" was the most important of the three [22,25]. As already cited above for the time variance, each project owner had a different order of priorities for each of the three dependent variables.…”

Digital Technologies in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry—A Bibliometric—Qualitative Literature Review of Research Activities

“…In addition, BIM was presented as a major technological improvement on conventional CAD, providing more intelligence and interoperability capabilities [ 152 ]. It was found that there several studies related to BIM integrates with sustainability and green house buildings [ 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 ] in developed countries. A recent study conducted by Naji et al [ 159 ] explored the BIM in lower consumption electric power but was limited to questionnaire data and simulation work and provide a platform for future researchers to explore this simulation work in real-time case studies for validation purposes.…”

Implications of sustainable features on life‐cycle costs of green buildings

“…Furthermore, Dwaikat and Ali (2016) indicated that the green building construction cost is higher than that of conventional buildings and falls within the range of 0–21%, depending on the type of building such as office, hospital, library, school, laboratory, house and apartment buildings. Similarly, in the context of Sri Lanka, Weerasinghe and Ramachandra (2018) concluded that the construction cost of a green industrial manufacturing building is 37% higher than that of a similar natured conventional building. Contrary to foregoing, Dwaikat and Ali (2016) stated that there is some evidence supporting that a green building costs less than a conventional building, falls up to 4%.…”

“…Similarly, in the context of Sri Lanka, Weerasinghe and Ramachandra (2018) concluded that the construction cost of a green industrial manufacturing building is 37% higher than that of a similar natured conventional building. Contrary to foregoing, Dwaikat and Ali (2016) stated that there is some evidence supporting that a green building costs less than a conventional building, falls up to 4%.…”