Buying of "green building products" to increase

Global purchasing of green building materials--cement, insulation and wood products— will grow to $571 billion by 2013 from $455.3 billion in 2008, suggests a study by Allied Business Intelligence Research of New York. "Innovation, particularly in wood and insulation, is a key driver behind the growth of green building products," suggests Larry Fisher, research director of ABI Research's "next generation" practice.

He writes to clients that "the most significant driver of growth in the green building materials sector is concern for the environment. While environmental preservation has been a topic of discussion for decades, only recently has the level of concern for the environment driven governments, manufacturers and consumers to respond."

He says the key to green building products include production with greater energy efficiency produced in an environmentally-friendly manner or, in the case of  wood products, lumber from well-managed forests.

Interestingly, some products now being classified as "green" have been on the market for years. For example, oriented strand board, or OSB, an engineered wood product, evolved from waferboard in the late 1970s, and has virtually replaced other building panels in new residential construction in many areas in North America.