Sustainability in construction, between politics and economics. A comparison of the U.S. market and the Italian one.

The requirement of sustainable buildings is increasingly clearly communicated and perceived. The manufacturers of materials and components for the building certify the characteristics of what we trade, and there are specific certifications for buildings and processes of design and construction. In this way, and thanks to some government incentives, the need for sustainability becomes a demand. Recently this mechanism of demand and supply can also find a translation in terms of economic forecasting. Some markets are more mature and more time are attentive to the need for sustainability of buildings. Other markets are slower or more complicated, and therefore only recently and only with numerous approximations can be studied from the point of view of sustainability. The U.S. market belongs to the first category (it is influenced by the LEED certification for some time), the Italian market belongs to the second category (it is characterized by a large and old building heritage). Despite the economic crisis, it is possible to study the performance of the U.S. market and see how it is positively influenced by the sustainability certification of buildings. A similar study can be done for the Italian market: some benefits can be found by improving the energy efficiency of buildings, other benefits may be determined by policies that bring results in the medium and long term.