Green Building and Sustainability: Study Confirms Corporate America Trends

McGraw-Hill Construction releases the Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report.

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 3, 2007 -- McGraw-Hill Construction (MHC), part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), in conjunction with its research and report partner Siemens, today released the Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket report detailing corporate Americas opinions on green building and sustainability.

The landmark green building study, sixth in a series, reveals that not only are most U.S. corporate leaders interested in sustainability, but the majority of leaders are also examining proactive ways to make sustainability a consistent part of their companies missions. Eighteen percent of leaders surveyed are in the upper, or market transformational, stages, with 15% viewing sustainability as a competitive advantage and 3% actually driving their entire businesses through this value-driven lens. Over the next three years, more companies see themselves as entering this top tier, with nearly a third of the sample aiming to be market leaders in sustainability.

Today's corporate leaders are already very conscious of using green practices when considering new facilities, and they expect green building to have an increasing impact in the future

The SmartMarket reports current numbers are encouraging, and the predictions are even more exciting," explains Harvey M. Bernstein, MHC vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives. Almost 60% of the top decision-makers in Americas most important corporations are seeing the value in sustainability concepts now, with that number expected to increase dramatically to 88% in just three years."

"Today's corporate leaders are already very conscious of using green practices when considering new facilities, and they expect green building to have an increasing impact in the future," said Brad Haeberle, director of Marketing, Siemens Building Technologies, Inc,. "Moreover, they believe that green building is in their company's best interests, not only for the clear economic benefits, but for the market differentiation and competitive advantage," he added.

The study also found that:
•   Government and internal management are strong drivers of green building activities.
•   Risk concerns are no longer the primary reason for a company to move toward sustainable practices.
•   60% of CFOs see the market differentiation that sustainability activities and green building can provide their companies, with over half of other respondents seeing this same benefit.
•   63% of CEOs recognize the financial benefits of green building, and 67% of them see a specific operating cost benefit from green.
•   57% of respondents think green building fosters innovation within their companies.

The research results contained in the Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report were drawn from a study conducted for Siemens by MHCs Research and Analytics group under a proprietary agreement. The research is a quantitative study into the opinions of 190 of corporate Americas top firms, with no firm having revenues less than $250 million. The majority of respondents were at the CFO or CEO level (84%), or senior vice presidents in environmental or investor-relations positions.

The Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report also includes articles from George S. Dallas, Managing Director and global practice leader for corporate governance at Standard & Poors (like MHC, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies); from SustainAbility, Ltd., a consultancy focused on sustainable development and corporate responsibility trends; and interviews with executives from DuPont and Citigroup, two leading corporate proponents of sustainability.

For more information on the Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report or other MHC studies, go to www.analyticsstore.construction.com, email construction_intelligence @ mcgraw-hill.com or call (800) 591-4462.

About McGraw-Hill Construction:
McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), connects people, projects and products across the design and construction industry. Backed by the power of Dodge, Sweets (www.sweets.com), Engineering News-Record (ENR, www.ENR.com), Architectural Record (www.architecturalrecord.com), GreenSource (www.greensourcemag.com), and Regional Publications, the company provides information, intelligence, tools, applications and resources to help customers grow their business. McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers within the $4.6 trillion global construction community. For more information, visit www.construction.com

About The McGraw-Hill Companies:
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poors, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 240 offices in 36 countries. Sales in 2005 were $6.0 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.

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