Portland, Oregon — May 26, 2026 — GBI certified 599 projects and over 157 million square feet in 2025; Journey to Net Zero™ participants saved enough energy to power over 5,300 homes for a year
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) today released its 2025 Impact Report, detailing a year of significant growth across certification, membership, education, and industry engagement.
In 2025, GBI certified 599 projects encompassing more than 157 million square feet of commercial real estate. Participants in GBI’s Journey to Net Zero™ program collectively saved more than 409 million kBtu, the equivalent of powering over 5,300 U.S. homes for an entire year. Membership grew at its fastest rate in a decade, with 215 organizational members, 1,342 individual members, and 50 new organizational members joining the GBI community.
The 2025 Impact Report highlights GBI’s response to one of the most consequential backdrops the green building industry has seen in decades. Shifting policy landscapes, new national administrations in the United States and Canada, and the rapid growth of digital infrastructure shaped a dynamic environment. As a result, GBI expanded education, deepened strategic relationships, and grew certification across sectors.
A defining theme of the year was digital infrastructure. As demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing accelerated, GBI deepened its engagement with the data center sector through its second annual Better Buildings: Data Center Seminar in Chicago, the launch of the Green Globes Data Center Campus Certification, and a congressional briefing co-hosted with ASHRAE and Aligned Data Centers. The December briefing convened industry leaders and lawmakers to address energy use, grid reliability, and evolving sustainability strategies for mission-critical facilities.
On the standards front, GBI received ANSI approval for Green Globes for Existing Buildings 2025, reflecting a rigorous consensus development process that included nearly 100 proposed revisions and contributions from more than 45 stakeholders. GBI also initiated ANSI standards development processes for new Green Globes programs tailored to Sustainable Interiors and Core & Shell construction.
GBI’s advocacy and education efforts continued to expand in 2025. GBI participated in more than 65 events across the U.S., Canada, and England, covering decarbonization, resilience, material transparency, embodied carbon, and net zero strategies. GBI hosted its third annual Capitol Hill Fly-In, bringing organizational leaders from six states and the District of Columbia to meet with members of Congress, and expanded government engagement from Atlantic Canada to Sacramento.
The year also brought meaningful new strategic alignments. In December, GBI and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announceda formal collaboration to accelerate sustainability in the built environment. GBI also established relationships with the Global Electronics Council (GEC) to integrate the EPEAT® ecolabel into Green Globes and Ascent™ certification pathways, and with PACE Equity to connect certification with innovative C-PACE financing.
The full 2025 Impact Report is available at thegbi.org.