Green building goes mainstream.

Preliminary results of a McGraw-Hill Construction/National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) survey have indicated that there has been a 20 percent increase in 2005 among those in the home building community who are focusing their attention on green, environmentally responsible building.

That number is expected to in crease by another 30 percent in 2006, according to a press release from McGraw-Hill Construction.

The findings will be issued in the Residential Green Building edition of McGraw-Hill Construction's series of SmartMarket Reports.

After several years of slow but steady growth across the country, the green home building movement is rapidly moving to the mainstream.

"Green home building is at a tipping point among the builder population," says Harvey Bernstein, vice president of Industry Analytics and Alliances for McGraw-Hill Construction. Citing statistics from the recent research study, he says green building will boost its market share from $7.4 billion and 2 percent of housing starts last year to $19 to $38 billion and 5 percent to 10 percent of residential construction activity by 2010.

To serve this growing market segment, McGraw-Hill has launched www. GreenSource.construction.com.