As oil penetrates the $130-a-barrel mark and natural gas prices increase to rates four times what they were since the late 1990s, the use of green building (or building green) has taken seed to a new beginning to reform the cost of energy across all sections of industry. Green building is no longer just another popular cause or fad; it is here to stay as a vital and profitable part of the commercial real estate and construction industries. Anyone in the building trades or anyone involved with real estate investing or leasing needs to understand fully -- green building trends, opportunities, and consequences that can affect all areas including building codes, insurance rates, employee health, customer satisfaction, and more. This article will set out to serve as a survey of the important fundamentals and forecasts of what has happened and what will happen going forward in the efforts to build a green environment. In order to understand the green building movement, one must define what green means, its roots in government, its regulatory offspring, the LEED certification system, its growth forecast, profitability, banking, and insurance industry efforts, and its affect on states such as Florida and all those that are ...