Despite “significant progress” in setting goals around energy, carbon, water, resilience and occupant wellbeing, she says many projects still face “uncertainty” and lack data as to whether modeling and standards will translate into “real-world performance.”

Weighed against crunched timelines and rising materials costs in an increasingly competitive building market, Kurtz adds that sustainability efforts are increasingly seen through an economic lens—“making it even more important to ground decisions in building science, operational data, risk reduction and business value rather than labels or certifications alone,” she says.

Contractors can help by bringing designers and key trade partners to the table early on, “while there is still room to evaluate structural systems, equipment, materials and procurement options,” says Mike Soucek, director of project development at Pinner Construction Co., which is ranked No. 62 on the green building contracting list.

“Early coordination” helps translate sustainability goals into “practical decisions that can be carried through construction and verified,” he adds. Across the green building market, Top 100 firms report that such a strategy can be a crucial component in how projects move forward.

Overall, Top 100 green design revenue increased by a substantial 17.1%, to $11.8 billion last year, while international green design revenue also rose significantly, up 18.3% to $2.15 billion.

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Median green design revenue rose 22.2% to $29.9 million. However, gains were not shared across all firms. Among firms ranked in the Top 50 who also filed a survey last year, 84.5% reported more green revenue on this year’s survey. But that increase is only 51.1% for firms ranked in the bottom 50. In total, the bottom 50 firms accounted for $582 million, or 4.9%, of the total Top 100 green design revenue. In 2020, the bottom 50 accounted for 9.9% of that year’s total design revenue.

Green design revenue rose in all markets ENR tracks. The largest increases were seen in the industrial process/manufacturing (up 54.4%), hotels (36.7%) and health care (30.4%) markets.

Revenue rose more modestly for Top 100 green contractors, increasing 5.9% last year from $96.3 billion to $101.9 billion, whereas international green general contracting revenue increased substantially, up 44.4% to $5.4 billion.

Median general contracting revenue fell 11.5% and has shrunk 18.3% over the past two years.

As with the design firms, there was a split between the top half of the Top 100 green contractors list and the bottom. Just over 67% of contractors ranked in the Top 50 who filed both this year and last reported increased green revenue on this year’s survey. Among firms ranked on the latter half of the list, only 42.2% did. The bottom-50 listed firms made up 5.4% of total green general contracting revenue this year, down from 7% last year.

Among Top 100 green contractors, revenue in the telecommunications market, which includes data centers, saw the largest increase, up 32.9% between 2024 and 2025. Markets for government offices and airports also saw substantial increases, up 12.8% and 12.6%, respectively. The retail market fell 71.1% between 2024 and 2025, down to just $154.1 million. Markets for hotels/hospitality and multi-unit residential also experienced large drops, down 22.6% and 20%, respectively.

Beyond the numbers, Top 100 Green Design Firms and Contractors say they are seeing the rollback of sustainability incentives at a federal level have a ripple effect on project costs—creating success in some markets while slowing others.

Renée Azerbegi, Mead & Hunt Inc. national decarbonization and sustainability leader, says the rules keep changing by sector and location. In some markets, “shifting policy priorities and reduced incentive programs have created uncertainty around funding and long-term sustainability goals,” she says “When private-sector clients focus more on near-term costs and schedule, they may not be as receptive to designing for better green building performance.” The firm is the No. 66- ranked green design firm.

For HOK, ranked No. 8 in design, global director of sustainable design Anica Landreneau says many HOK clients are expressing new concern about grid reliability. “For some it may mean a reluctance to fully electrify, but for others it may be a renewed and more sustained interest in onsite renewable energy generation or energy storage,” she says. “Clients are more concerned with energy resilience. In certain regions it may also raise the question of water security, and we’re making sure to address it in the resilience assessments we perform at the beginning of projects.”

Megan Hardman, principal at Affiliated Engineers Inc. says the No. 39-ranked design firm sees fewer building owners elect to pursue green certifications as building energy codes become more stringent and green building certifications become more challenging to achieve. “Or they are choosing to pursue less ambitious certification levels,” she notes. “Rather than increasing their commitment in response to higher efficiency expectations, there seems to be a noticeable shift away from ambitious stretch goals.”

Hardman says the firm sees this more often with clients that have yet to establish robust sustainability standards. When it comes to building-level decarbonization, building owners often take an “all or nothing” approach, she says. To address such challenges, Hardman says the firm has adopted a mindset of “meeting building owners where they are and working with them to identify reasonable stretch targets within the project budget.”

Webcor, ranked No. 26 on the contractor list, Senior Sustainability Director Sarah Rege says not integrating advanced green building requirements such as life cycle and embodied carbon assessments into the project early on can lead to frustration later.

“These are now part of the code requirements for all of our projects, and many clients have goals or aspirations that go beyond the minimum requirements,” she says. “But if it’s not fully understood and incorporated in the design, there can be missed opportunities. This is because these requirements and associated reporting are still relatively new.”

Third-party certifications designed to optimize occupant health such as WELL and Fitwel can provide a research-backed framework for creating healthier and more productive spaces, with measurable benefits ranging from higher occupant satisfaction to reduced absenteeism and stronger asset value, says Dewberry’s Jenni Betancourt, associate principal and director of sustainability. The firm is ranked No. 68 on the Green Design Firms list.

“One of the biggest challenges in the green building market is moving beyond environmental performance to prioritize human health and wellness,” she contends. “Owners recognize the value but struggle to justify the associated soft costs.” Dewberry’s approach has been to break down uncertainty with education on how long-term investments can deliver better value over short-term savings.

Betancourt adds, “While budget pressures can still limit adoption, awareness and demand continue to grow.”

Linked to Climate Week, the U.S. Green Building Council released its new corporate practice toolkit for high-performance buildings, which provides guidance and model language to help building owners implement policies, procurement decisions and building-scale actions aligned with real estate goals.

On the toolkit’s benefits, USGBC senior policy counsel Elizabeth Beardsley says a corporate green building policy can help establish internal guidelines that “support optimal decision-making across all aspects of real estate—from capital planning and site selection to design, construction, operation, and maintenance of owned or leased assets.”

Beardsley explains that corporate sustainability leads, building professionals and other stakeholders can use the free interactive toolkit to quickly set policies and identify strategies to scale portfolio-wide action toward decarbonization and resilience goals.

After USGBC's version 5 LEED release last year—which aimed to address decarbonization, quality of life, biological conservation and restoration—Beardsley says the organization has been focused on how to continuously improve upon system performance metrics, integrating feedback to target shifting priorities in the green building market.

In May, during a keynote address at the Green Business Certification Inc., Europe Circle 2026 conference in Milan, the council and certification group announced formation of a joint risk and resilience advisory task force. Comprised of experts from council member organizations across climate science, risk engineering, standards development, real estate investment and insurance, the task force aims to help ensure that council products, programs and educational offerings reflect emerging industry needs, research and best practices related to resilience.

“Our built environment is not built for this kind of world, said certification group president and CEO Peter Templeton. Sustainability leaders now “more than ever” need to communicate how decarbonization strategies can decrease building operational costs, reduce transition risk and improve asset value, he said.

In addition to decarbonization and climate resilience, Templeton named the rapid rise of artificial intelligence infrastructure among the major trends reshaping the green building market.

With economic consulting firms estimating that global data center spending could reach $31.6 trillion by 2050, Beardsley says such investment has created a rapidly expanding market sector where the USGBC is seeing “huge amounts” of construction growth.

“Clearly, that growth has struck a nerve with the public, and there are concerns about how communities and utilities can manage that growth,” says Beardsley, referencing intensifying public concerns over data center energy usage.

“What USGBC is doing in response to the data center boom includes closely examining this sector to identify opportunities to improve, engaging directly with project developers and engineers and developing resources to help stakeholders understand sustainability options and the appropriate role of certifications.”

She adds, “We believe LEED can be an important tool for doing that, and, in fact, there are already hundreds of LEED-certified data centers across the country that are better in certain ways because they have undergone third-party verification.”

Still, Top 100 firms say there are growing concerns that data center construction could be happening too fast for certifications to fully account for their impact.

“We definitely run the risk of building data centers too quickly without fully addressing their environmental and community impacts—and dealing with the consequences later,” says Kate Bubriski, director of building performance at Arrowstreet, ranked No. 65 on the design list. “At the same time, I’m optimistic that growing public awareness and increased scrutiny from state and local governments are creating an opportunity to thoughtfully evaluate these risks.”

At a contracting level, “the pressure to deliver data centers at a fast pace is real—but that’s not unique to this market.” Swinerton Chief Revenue Officer Chris Chany says. “What’s different is the level of public attention these projects receive.” He says concerns over how data centers impact natural resources and maintain operational efficiency are opportunities to elevate conversations around sustainability.

“In that sense, their greatest impact will be increasing awareness of innovative power and cooling technologies and accelerating adoption of solutions of mass timber and modular construction that help the industry balance speed with environmental responsibility,” says Chany.

As AI infrastructure continues to develop, Top 100 firms say there is also an opportunity to use it to augment green building design, improve operations and increase capacity.

“As a firm, we’re strategically implementing proven applications while maintaining our design excellence and protecting our intellectual property,” says Varun Kohli, director of sustainability at Corgan, ranked No. 18 in design. By using AI-generated visualizations to enhance Corgan’s original designs, Kohli says the firm has reduced client revision cycles and accelerated decision-making, “which allows us to spend more time on creative problem-solving and less time on repetitive tasks,” he says.

Skidmore Owings & Merrill Sustainability Director Marzia Sedino says the No. 24-ranked firm is creating an AI-powered data hub to better share knowledge across projects. It acts as a central digital library that transforms previously fragmented knowledge into structured, searchable and interoperable datasets.

“We set a goal to reach net zero whole life carbon across all our active work by 2040,” says Sedino. “Meeting that future depends on our ability to generate data from projects, document that data, and learn from it.”

At JE Dunn, ranked No. 27 in contracting, Chief Information Officer John Jacobs says the “future is AI enabling designers, estimators, sustainability specialists, and builders to make better decisions together from the same trusted data foundation.”

He adds, “Only because of our carefully architected enterprise data strategy is this future becoming a reality today.”

Just as conversations around decarbonization, data centers, federal policies and green building practices have evolved, firms say they too must evolve to keep operations flexible to respond to owners’ needs.

“Owners, design teams and contractors are left trying to anticipate policies and markets that feel very unpredictable,” says Kimberly Reddin, director of sustainability at Flad Architects, ranked No. 47. “The lack of stability means we all need to improve collaboration and teamwork between owners, designers, industry suppliers, and construction teams.”

As chair of the U.S. General Services Administration’s High-Performance Building Advisory Committee, Fernando Arias, HITT Contracting’s director of sustainability says that he has seen firsthand how federal green building policy “keeps evolving.” That includes congressional budget requisitions that federal agencies are making to keep advancing green building design and construction for their own facilities, he adds.

“While incentives flowing from the federal government to private-sector construction may be fewer than in past years, the government is still advancing its own policy priorities, and the industry can still deliver against those,” says Arias of the ranked No. 6 contracting firm.

CannonDesign Sustainability Director Eric Corey says virtually all of the ranked No. 12 design firm’s clients have sustainability and climate action goals in some form or fashion.

“The main pain point is consistently needing to evolve people’s perspective of sustainability from a ‘nice to have’ to a fully relevant pathway to achieve better buildings,” he points out. “If designers do their jobs correctly, sustainability becomes a cost benefit.”

At DPR, ranked No. 3 in green contracting, Global Sustainability Director Ryan Poole says the firm has shifted its mindset from asking whether a project is “green” to asking how better environmental practices can be incorporated into every project.

“Certifications and green building frameworks remain important because they provide structure, consistency and third-party validation,” says Poole. However, many owners are now asking deeper questions about actual performance. That shift requires contractors to become more involved earlier in the process. It means working more closely with designers, suppliers and trade partners, improving data collection and helping owners understand which outcomes can be measured and verified.”

Overall, the principles of green building have not changed,” says Anita Nelson, regional executive officer at Skanska USA, which is ranked No. 16 in green contracting.

“We’re still focused on reducing carbon, improving resource efficiency, and delivering facilities that perform over the long term,” she says.

“What AI infrastructure growth has changed is the scale and speed at which those goals must be achieved,’ Nelson adds. “For contractors and designers, that means integrating sustainability earlier in the process and using better data to inform decisions, while focusing on areas where we can have the greatest impact.”