| The building industry in North America currently consumes an unsustainable, enormous quantity of renewable and non-renewable resources. LEED is a green building rating system for constructing energy efficient, environmentally responsible buildings. Despite significant success within the governmental and institutional sectors in Canada and the U.S., the Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector has failed to take up LEED to a similar degree.;The integration of environmentally responsible building strategies within SMEs may also provide a practical method of engaging the SME sector in the broader issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability.;Solutions to overcome this lack of participation must be adaptable for the SME sector's highly varied circumstances. This thesis presents a LEED business case and project analysis structure that an SME can adapt to its own business conditions and as a result, arrive at its own credible conclusions regarding the long term value of a green building. |
