After posting an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% through 2006, the market for green, or environmentally friendly, building materials is expected to continue growing from almost $2.2 billion in 2006 to $4.7 billion in 2011, although at a slightly slower rate of 17%, according to Green Building Materials in the U.S., a new report from market research publisher SBI.

For a growing percentage of building buyers, occupants, and do-it-yourselfers, issues such as energy efficiency, indoor air quality, sustainability, and even more abstract measures of environmental impact no longer represent minor components of the decision process; they are now increasingly core preferences for homes and buildings.

Although the public sector and commercial projects have dominated green construction, residential green construction will undoubtedly see a boom. Residential projects have different materials profiles and imply different opportunities than those in the commercial sector, particularly in their extensive use of wood. SBI projects that green flooring, the slowest growing segment through 2006, will become the market's fastest grower through 2011, earning a CAGR of 45%.

"There is a risk that the 'green washing' of construction-related products and services will dilute the emerging trend so much that it will lose its meaning and its impact on sustainability and sound practices," notes Tatjana Meerman, Publisher of SBI. "However, there is too much genuine opportunity in the industry for stakeholders to just sit by and watch this exciting new trend be eroded by paler shades of green construction. The industry will be disciplined either internally or by consumers who will demand clarity."