III. Market Structure and Change Mechanisms

A. The Fragmented Buildings Industry 

The building industry comprises hundreds of thousands of firms

designing, building, and maintaining the nation's building stock and affecting

its urban landscape.

Figure 6 portrays the roles of some of the more influential types of decision 

makers and stakeholders who affect GHG related purchases and building operation decisions. This illustration

is necessarily a simplification of the actual maze of influences rooted in the building industry's geographic,

vertical, and horizontal fragmentation.

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This fragmentation distinguishes the challenges to a low GHG emit 

ting future in the buildings sector from those in the transportation, industrial, and power generation sectors.

On the consumption side, the nation's 106 million households and the occupants of millions of

commercial and industrial buildings make up the largest group of energy end use decision makers in the 

U.S. economy. Their decisions influence the operation and sustainability of the largest component of the

nation's physical wealth its buildings. 

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Figure 6

Nearly one third

Multiple Stakeholders and Decision makers  

(32 percent) of U.S. house 

in the Building Sector

holds rent their homes.

Similarly, 40 percent of

Federal, State, & Local

Builders, Architects,

Government

Contractors, Service

privately owned commercial

& Repair Industries

buildings are rented or

Manufacturers &

leased.

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For these segments

Product Distributors

Owners & Renters

of Buildings

of the market, landlords

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Energy

have a powerful influence

Suppliers

over the energy efficiency of

Realtors, Financial &

Energy Service

Insurance Institutions

Companies

the building structures and

their equipment. 

17

Towards a Climate Friendly  

Built Environment

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