David Gottfried, WorldBuild

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, David Gottfried studied solar engineering at Stanford University. It was a time “when we still remembered the energy crisis of the 1970s,” he says. The work there turned Gottfried on to the larger idea of creating low-impact structures. Once he received his degree, though, the world wasn’t quite yet ready to embrace green buildings. Gottfried spent the next 10 years learning the real estate trade in Washington, D.C. When the housing market slumped in the early 1990s, Gottfried says he saw an opportunity to push his firm toward more sustainable practices. His work was soon noticed by architects involved in the then-burgeoning green building movement and he was asked to sit on a committee that, through his efforts, eventually morphed into the U.S. Green Building Council and the World Green Building Council (USGBC).

While at USGBC, Gottfried helped develop the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. In 1994, he started his own green building consulting firm called WorldBuild. Most recently, in January, he opened a new venture capital firm called Regenerative Ventures, which has already invested in a few companies and positioned Gottfried on the advisory board of a handful of others. In the midst of all that, Gottfried is also doing “a deep-green remodel” of a 1915 Craftsman home in the Bay Area. When it’s done, he says, it will be the region’s first LEED-Platinum home.

Considering the current economic downturn and slowing housing market, it seemed a good time to tap the mind of a man steeped in both green building and real estate markets, and to hear what he thinks about the prospects for green building in uncertain economic times.

SI: Do you think the possible recession we’re facing is going to affect the green-building market?

DG: It’s hitting the building industry hard, but the bright spot still is green building. The market’s been growing about 30 percent a year for green building, whereas it’s decreasing for the industry in general. The LEED rating system has some 15,000 projects that have registered for certification. Over 100 cities mandated green requirements for their own buildings. Some of the homebuilders who are building are starting to move over and embrace green. Why is all that doing well? Because new construction is slowing down, but there’s existing buildings which are being rehabbed green.

SI: So the green building market can rely on remodeling to keep it afloat during this downturn?