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Bettesworth Construction
construction market

ENR 2026 Top 100 Green Design Firms and Contractors: What 2025 Revenue Shows

ENR’s 2026 green rankings show 2025 revenue growth among ranked design firms and contractors, but uneven results by firm size and building sector.

By Bettesworth Construction Team 5 min read
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ENR’s 2026 green rankings show that revenue from registered green-building projects rose in 2025, but growth was uneven. The Top 100 design firms reported a 17.1% increase to $11.8 billion, while the Top 100 green contractors reported a 5.9% increase to $101.9 billion. The figures describe revenue earned by ranked firms on eligible projects—not the value of all green construction, project performance, or the quality of a firm’s work.

What ENR’s 2026 green rankings measure

ENR’s 2026 rankings use company revenue earned in 2025 from projects registered with a third-party green-building or sustainable-construction rating organization. A project can count before it receives final certification. Conversely, an unregistered project does not count, even if a contractor applies its own environmental standards. ENR’s survey form explains that this rule avoids relying on subjective definitions of green building. ENR’s Green Buildings Survey form

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The amount counted is the company’s revenue generated on an eligible project, not the project’s full value at completion. The lists cover U.S.-based design firms and general contractors, including U.S.-based subsidiaries of non-U.S. companies. ENR describes design firms as engineers, architects, and other firms offering green and sustainable design services; the contractor list covers general contractors providing green and sustainable contracting services. The 2026 lists were scheduled for online publication by October 8 and in ENR’s October 12 issue. ENR’s 2026 Top Lists schedule

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These are ENR-reported survey results. The available sources do not establish that submissions were independently audited, so the totals should be read as the survey’s measure of its defined group—not as independently verified totals for the whole green-building market.

Design firms grew faster than contractors in 2025

ENR’s October 8, 2026 report gives a stronger growth rate for design than for contracting. These are separate business categories and should not be treated as like-for-like measures of the same project value.

ENR ranking category 2025 revenue reported Change reported for 2025 Additional context
Top 100 green design firms $11.8 billion Up 17.1% Median green design revenue rose 22.2% to $29.9 million.
International green design revenue $2.15 billion Up 18.3% Reported separately from the overall Top 100 design total.
Top 100 green contractors $101.9 billion, up from $96.3 billion Up 5.9% Median green general contracting revenue fell 11.5%; it was down 18.3% over two years.
International green general contracting revenue $5.4 billion Up 44.4% Reported separately from the overall Top 100 contractor total.

The much larger contractor total reflects the different revenue base of general contracting; it does not mean contractors generated nearly nine times the design revenue on an identical set of work. ENR reports its design and contracting categories separately.

Growth was stronger among top-ranked firms

Among firms that responded to both survey years, 84.5% of the top 50 design firms reported higher green revenue, compared with 51.1% of the bottom 50. The bottom half accounted for $582 million, or 4.9%, of total Top 100 design revenue; ENR says that share was 9.9% in 2020.

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The contractor results show a similar split, though less pronounced: just over 67% of repeat respondents in the top 50 reported higher green revenue, versus 42.2% in the bottom 50. The bottom 50 contractors accounted for 5.4% of total green general contracting revenue, down from 7%.

These comparisons apply to repeat survey respondents and the ranked groups; they are not evidence that every top-half firm grew or every bottom-half firm contracted. They do show why the aggregate totals cannot stand in for the experience of a typical firm. Design revenue’s median rose, while the median for general contracting fell.

Which building sectors expanded—and which fell

Sector growth also varied substantially. The percentages below are revenue changes reported by ENR for the relevant ranked firms and categories in 2025, not measures of total construction spending across each sector.

Rank #4
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Green Building Fundamentals
  • Covers cost implications of green building practices, including initial investments, long-term cost benefits, and current market trends.
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Design-firm revenue

  • Industrial process and manufacturing: up 54.4%.
  • Hotels: up 36.7%.
  • Health care: up 30.4%.

Contractor revenue

  • Telecommunications, including data centers: up 32.9%.
  • Government offices: up 12.8%.
  • Airports: up 12.6%.
  • Retail: down 71.1%, to $154.1 million.
  • Hotels and hospitality: down 22.6%.
  • Multi-unit residential: down 20%.

The leaders and laggards differ by business category. A fast-growing design sector does not necessarily imply equally strong contractor revenue in that sector, and declines in specific contractor markets coexist with growth in the overall contractor total.

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Why the broader growth picture is uneven

ENR’s report points to rising construction costs, limited labor resources, and shifting federal policies and incentives as pressures on projects. Those factors help explain the operating environment described by firms, but the survey does not establish them as tested causes of each revenue change.

Best Value

Several practitioners emphasize decisions that can be made before a project is locked into a design or construction approach. Mike Soucek, director of project development at Pinner Construction Co., said “Early coordination” helps translate sustainability goals into “practical decisions that can be carried through construction and verified,”. The practical implication is to bring designers, contractors, and trade partners into the conversation early enough to assess systems and materials while options remain open.

Jill Kurtz, sustainable design leader at Stantec, said “the future of green building will be defined not by what we intend a building to do but by what it actually delivers throughout its lifetime,”. That places attention on operational data and measured performance after occupancy, rather than treating a design target or certification as proof of long-term results. Ryan Poole, Global Sustainability Director at DPR, also noted: “Certifications and green building frameworks remain important because they provide structure, consistency and third-party validation,”

Cost is part of that discussion. Eric Corey, Sustainability Director at CannonDesign, said: “If designers do their jobs correctly, sustainability becomes a cost benefit.” This is his perspective on the value of design choices, not a guarantee that every sustainability measure reduces cost.

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Fernando Arias, HITT Contracting director of sustainability and chair of the U.S. General Services Administration’s High-Performance Building Advisory Committee, said: “While incentives flowing from the federal government to private-sector construction may be fewer than in past years, the government is still advancing its own policy priorities, and the industry can still deliver against those,” His comment distinguishes uncertainty around private-sector incentives from continuing public-sector priorities.

Bevel illustrates an approach, not a completed result

ENR’s report describes Bevel, a planned 12-story mass-timber office tower in Bellevue, Washington, designed by Mithun and Waugh Thistleton for Skanska. Mithun says it is the first project of its kind approved for 100% exposed timber ceilings. The team is seeking LEED v4 Platinum and Fitwel 2-Star ratings. These are project plans and claims attributed to the design firm; they should not be read as evidence that the building is complete, certified, or delivering measured operational results.

Quick Recap

How to read the rankings

  • Use them to compare ENR-ranked firms’ revenue from projects registered with third-party rating organizations.
  • Keep the reporting period straight: the 2026 lists report company revenue earned in 2025.
  • Do not equate registered-project revenue with final certification, environmental performance, or total project value.
  • Separate design and contractor totals, and keep sector and top-half/bottom-half comparisons tied to their stated populations.

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