Green Building in Maryland: An Analysis of 2009
As we draw closer to the end of 2009, I'm beginning to think about statistics relating to green building 
here in Maryland (and no, I didn't quit my day job as an attorney to become a mathematician...). It's been a tough year in terms of getting new projects up and running, but, amazingly, the green building movement has continued to grow despite the weakened economy.
Here are a couple of interesting statistics for you to mull over:
- In Maryland, 11 out of 24 Counties (counting the City of Baltimore) are working towards implementing some form of green building practices - in various forms including regulations mandating LEED certification (or its equivalent) for both public and private new construction projects; the offer of tax credits to incentivize green building techniques; the offer of added density to projects or for fast-track permitting processing; etc. Obviously, from an industry perspective, the use of incentives is more attractive (and hopefully those remaining 13 counties consider creating incentives if and when they decide to implement green building practices).
- The number of LEED registered projects in Maryland has increased by over 35% this year; increasing from 520 in 2008 to over 800 by the end of 2009.
- Maryland is home to over 60 LEED certified buildings, up from approximately 40 certified projects at the end of 2008
- [Source for all statistics: www.usgbc.org]
It's great to see numbers like these considering the many challenges of 2009. Based on this type of performance, I'm betting that these numbers will continue to increase over the coming new year!
