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We still have more than 50 days before President-elect Barack Obama officially takes office on January 20, 2009. As we wait for Inauguration Day, the anticipatory buzz continues to build with respect to his new administration and its ability to stimulate a green economy, create millions of green jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, advance greener, more energy-efficient buildings and infrastructure in the built environment.

It’s interesting to me how much the green building buzz has grown over the last month since the results of the election. Perhaps it has to do with Obama’s most recent comments, affirming his support for a massive stimulus plan (Obama’s Video Address). Perhaps it has to do with more folks processing the implications of many of the green policy proposals advanced by the President-Elect during the campaign. Notably, the U.S. Green Building Counsel has been very “vocal” (USGBC / Obama’s Green Building Agenda). Perhaps it has do with the most recent studies of the U.S. green building market, which suggest that green building could triple over the next five years. Perhaps it has to do with the recent GreenBuild 2008 Conference in Boston, which saw record attendance of 29,700. Whatever it is, it’s exciting… and suggests to me that there will be increased attention on green building in Obama’s agenda and its importance in a growing green economy.

While President-elect Barack Obama is poised to inherit a ton of problems across every dimension of his presidency (from War to Wall Street), I look for the Obama administration to support a wide array of Clean Technologies. I submit that we will hear the words “green,” “efficiency,”  “clean technology,” “energy,” “innovation,” “sustainability” “small business” and “entrepreneur” repeatedly from this administration and that these words will actually translate into real economic policy. Like the USGBC, we look for green building to be near the top of Barack Obama’s list of his priorities. As a leading indicator of this, President-Elect Obama is on the record with respect to proposing a plan that requires all new buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030. Along this line, Obama is committed to establishing a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade. Under the plan, the federal government is expected to award grant funds to states and localities that implement new, energy efficient building codes (LEED) that prioritize energy efficiency. Many of Obama’s proposals are ambitious, but intelligent green building policy could prove to be a real silver bullet for stimulating the economy.

Since being elected, President-Elect Obama has repeatedly signaled (loudly) that rebuilding our nations’ infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges, schools) will be a key priority of his stimulus plan. Obama’s proposed plan calls for investing up to $60 billion over 10 years into infrastructure projects, which could create 2 million jobs. This, alone, could be a huge driver of growth in the green building sector. No wonder the anticipatory buzz is building.