Legal issues in green construction.

摘要

The most recent "green construction movement", made a significant impact on the design and construction industry in the United States. Organizations such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have lobbied governmental entities to provide financial incentives to promote green construction. The green construction community also promotes the notion that a healthier working and living environment is achieved. Due to finical incentives coupled with projected long-term energy cost savings, many owners of new construction are considering green construction as an option. Accompanying the "green construction movement", new kinds of legal issues, particularly relating to green aspects such as certification, energy saving, performance, incentives and cost increase are arising because of innovative ideas involved in green construction and also because of lack of adequate knowledge about the field by all the parties involved in the project. This thesis focuses on identifying and analyzing legal issues that are unique to green construction. Issues related to both the design and construction processes along with the commissioning and long-term operation and maintenance are included in this research. The research is based on data collected within U.S., regarding the issues in green projects, via SurveyMonkey®. Data characterizations along with several statistical analyses have been conducted to study the various aspects of the green projects with issues. Recommendations and conclusions based on the research are presented.