According to a new report conducted by Zion Research, the global green building materials market is expected to double by 2020. Using 2014 as its baseline where green building materials contributed $127.5 billion to the global construction market, of which North American accounted for 40% of that, the 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will reach $255 billion by 2020. The report noted that the strong rate of growth for the global green buildings market has been largely driven by greater attention to environmental issues, as well as government regulations requiring more sustainable construction. One major factor behind the projected spike in green building is likely the U.S. Green Building Council's announcement that it plans to add more than 5 billion square feet of green buildings over the next five years through its LEED green building rating systems. This research supports the Dodge Data & Analytics' World Green Building Trends 2016 report where green building is doubling every three years.

A growing construction materials market will also mean a growing material transparency market. Therefore, how are you positioning your company to take advantage of the green building growth? As a supporting element in the Build with Strength campaign, NRMCA continues to develop resources and tools to support your competitiveness in the green building marketplace and the trends toward product transparency. Some of our initiatives can be found in the industry-wide or company-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) programs; the recently-released Guide to Material Ingredient Disclosure, the development of which was funded by the RMC Research & Education Foundation; and our global collaboration to develop a responsible sourcing program for the industry. Each of these is targeted to drive concrete as a product transparency leader.