While many public agencies and architectural firms are gearing up for green design and LEED certification, developers and owners are slower to embrace the trend.

The Womble Carlyle Construction Blog addresses “Why more people don’t build green” in an April 13 post.

Here are the highlights:

• more expensive
• takes more time to build
• few incentives for developers
• low public demand
• absence of research on the impacts and benefits
• confusion over building standards

Here in St. Louis, The Lawrence Group Architects has successfully renovated The Security Building as a green historic building and is in the process of applying for LEED certification. This year, the Lawrence Group is increasing its number of LEED accredited staff to 40, five times the previous number.

The Lawrence Group occupies several floors of the building and is leasing the rest. As far as we know, the Security Building is the only LEED-designed space available for lease in St. Louis. Kudos to The Lawrence Group for making this project a success!