Green Building Benefits and Barriers:
Community Enhancement

Green buildings reflect positively on their communities. By adopting green building practices, business owners, school districts, and local and state governments can demonstrate their commitment to the environment, along with their employees’, students’, and citizens’ welfare.

Commitment to environmental protection and resource conservation

Community leaders can send a strong message about their commitment to their community’s natural resources by choosing to build green. For business owners, building green is a way of demonstrating social consciousness by minimizing pollutants and reducing demand on local energy and water infrastructures. Some city and state governments are already making green construction a standard practice for any future buildings, setting a positive example for businesses and citizens.

An area in which communities can make significant impacts is the building of green schools. Green schools are not only beneficial for children’s health, but also provide many environmental education opportunities through their clean energy features and designs.

Commitment to community inhabitants’ welfare

Business owners and school districts can not only save money on operating costs by building green, but can also demonstrate their concern for employees’ and students’ health and success. The health and comfort benefits of green buildings are discussed in greater detail in the Health and Productivity section.

Community resources on green buildings can be found in the Green Building in Massachusetts and How to Get Involved sections.

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