facility maintenance and operation, as well as materials manufacturing and transport related to construction, is taken into account the building industries as a whole represent a significant percentage of the nation's economy. Construction alone accounts for approximately 7 to 9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Building Research Board (BRB) staff estimates that the construction industries combined account for more than 12 percent of GDP. Construction by government at all levels each year typically accounts for less than 20 percent of this total activity. However, if government action to foster innovation in the building industries could increase overall productivity by as little as I percent, the likely payoff nationwide could exceed $5 billion annually. Federal programs alone could reap annual benefits of $200 million.

In comparison to the rapid strides being made in electronics, medicine, or biotechnology, some observers feel that innovation in buildings and construction—in the United States, at least—is lagging. The typical user of buildings and construction finds that many of the materials and procedures employed are superficially similar to those of past decades and even past centuries. Some people argue that increasing concerns for environmental and public health implications of building materials and design elements, and progressively diminishing time horizons of decisionmakers focused on immediate financial results, were not conducive to sustained innovation in the U.S. building industries in the 1970s and 1980s. The highly variable and cyclical demand for construction also has made it difficult for builders and suppliers to maintain even medium-term commitments to investment for innovation.

In addition, some observers note that the construction-related industries are dominated, more so than most other industries in the United States, by a male professional and crafts work force. Evidence in other fields suggests that a more balanced and diverse labor force may yield greater numbers of new ideas and different priorities in the pursuit of these new ideas. This raises many questions about labor force recruitment, education, and training that are beyond the scope of the present study. The committee knows of no research that demonstrates gender-specific aspects of innovation.

Nevertheless, the committee observed that the U.S. building and construction industries do work to achieve technological progress, and there are results (see box). Digital controls for heating and cooling systems, power hand tools using lightweight batteries, computer-aided design systems that allow designers and builders to simulate construction of large buildings, roller-compacted concrete, advanced structural design methods, and drywall mounting adhesives are a few recent innovations (see Appendix E).

Some of these innovations originated as inventions emerging from the research laboratory to find widespread application. Fabric and plastic structures, "virtual reality" computer simulations for facilities planning and design, and information management methods that facilitate collection and analysis of facility condition data are new ideas, now being developed, that may become true innovations.