"The construction industry has an immense impact on the environment, so green building products are a key market within the global environmental movement," says Larry Fisher, research director at NextGen, in a release. "After all, buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change."

He adds that in the US, "buildings account for 38% of all CO2 emissions, use 13.6% of all potable water, and consume 72% of all electrical power generation. Commercial and residential developers need to assess the total life cycle of all the building products and materials they utilize, as they can have a substantial, lasting effect on the environment."

Fisher tells GlobeSt.com that advances in green materials themselves will play a "substantial" role in the growth of sales and usage, "provided those advances include making the materials less expensive to produce." He adds that notwithstanding the slight decrease in the cost premium for using green materials in construction, "the market's too nascent for increasing volume to offset prices. Economies of scale will kick in eventually."