Real-estate moguls know there’s good money in environment-friendly buildings. Here’s how the little guy can play, too. So how do individual investors get in on this latest real-estate boom?

If the workplace is any indication, you could almost believe corporate America really cares about the environment. Goldman Sachs , Hearst, IBM Corp, JPMorgan Chase, and Toyota Motor all have made the move into “green” buildings. Bank of America plans to build a 52-story eco-skyscraper near New York’s Times Square, and Accenture has leased green office space throughout the country.

Sustainable construction is one of the fastest-growing segments of the already-red-hot commercial-building industry. An estimated 5% of all new U.S. commercial construction received the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification last year. And by 2010, 10% of all new commercial construction will be sustainable, according to McGraw-Hill’s 2006 Smart Market report: “The green trend in home construction is still in its infancy, although that’s bound to change.”

Existing construction is getting an eco-lift too. Developers such as Hines and the Durst Organization, and some real-estate investment trusts (REITs), are snapping up half-empty office buildings and renovating them according to green standards. That can often bring 3% higher rents and a 7.5% increase in a building’s value, according to the McGraw-Hill report.

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IT PAYS TO THINK GREEN WHEN INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE!

Contact Meghan Clair, Maui’s First Female EcoBroker, for more information about the Green Building movement in the state of Hawaii!

MClair@Windermere.com