A new study (PDF) from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development finds that folks in the real estate and construction businesses overestimate the cost of building green by 300%.

Specifically, the 1,400 professionals surveyed across the globe estimated that:

Your support powers solutions-focused climate reporting — keeping it free for everyone. All donations DOUBLED for a limited time. Give now in under 45 seconds.
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds

Stories like this don’t tell themselves.

Make others like it possible. Your support powers solutions-focused climate reporting — keeping it free for everyone. Give now in under 45 seconds.
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds
  • green building costs 17% more than normal building, when the reality is 5%, and
  • greenhouse gases from buildings are 19% of the global total, when the reality is 40%.

Got that? People in the relevant industries underestimate the damage their products are doing, and overestimate how much it costs to clean them up.

You can read the study as disheartening, but I actually find it incredibly hopeful. This is over a third of our global GHG emissions that can be eliminated, cost-effectively, with current technology and practices. All that’s needed is evangelism.

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

We can do that, right?