The End of the Billable Hour (In Green Building)

Author

Charlie Cichetti
February 01, 2026

Smart strategies. Sharp stories. Sustainability that sticks.

📬 Intro: Why Pricing Is Changing

Hourly billing has shaped professional services ever since factories in 19th-century England began measuring labor by the clock rather than the craft. It offered clarity. It fit procurement rules. It made work legible to clients who lacked other ways to measure value.

That structure now faces pressure.

AEC tracks performance closely. For operators, energy use, emissions exposure, compliance risk, and operating cost now sit inside capital planning conversations. These metrics carry deadlines and financial consequences.

Colin Milner captures the shift clearly in Sustainable Investment Group’s Q4 2025 New York City market report: “Performance-based pricing is becoming the norm.” He describes observed market behavior, not a future trend.

AI shortens the work. It reduces manual steps and speeds up verification. Results show up sooner, and pricing follows the metrics clients already track.

🌱 Field Notes: How the Shift Is Showing Up

🔢 Owners price around outcomes

Milner notes that clients focus on “lower utility bills, improved ENERGY STAR scores, and LL97 readiness.” These targets anchor contracts and define success.

Consulting firms respond by shaping services around delivery milestones and accountability. Pricing adjusts accordingly.

💼 Budgets changed the conversation

Laura Steinbrink, President of Emerald Built Environment, explains how sustainability moved fully into operating budgets during 2025. Projects gained defined scopes, schedules, and cost expectations.

Once funded, sustainability work entered the same scrutiny as other capital decisions.

💡 Carbon Lighthouse offers a clear model

Carbon Lighthouse structures fees around performance. The firm identifies savings, executes improvements, and ties compensation to verified results.

In published case material, Carbon Lighthouse reports projects delivering roughly $400,000 in annual energy savings with fees near $70,000. Owners accept the model because the economics are direct and verifiable.

Approvals move faster. Risk feels contained.

🏗 Arup applies outcome pricing at scale

Arup uses outcome-linked pricing across parts of its digital and advisory work. Fees align with pre-defined results and delivery benchmarks.

This structure supports large portfolios and long timelines. Clients gain predictability. Teams gain flexibility in execution.

🧠 Technology supports repeatability

SIG’s Colin Milner highlights AI-based fault detection, analytics, and remote commissioning. These tools shorten feedback loops and simplify verification.
Delivery becomes easier to package.

A MESSAGE FROM SKEMA

Tired of spending months turning schematics into BIM?

Skema.ai lets you do it in minutes (yes, really). This AI-powered tool takes your existing Revit, ArchiCAD, or IFC files and creates fully-integrated BIM models faster than you can say "value engineering." Already trusted by TVS Design and other industry heavyweights.

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🏛 BUILT TO LAST: What This Means for Architects

Architects create decision value early. Those decisions shape cost, risk, and constructability downstream.

Traditional billing places most compensation on coordination time and revisions. Outcome pricing shifts attention to clarity delivered earlier in the process.

Design teams that reduce ambiguity and carry intelligence forward can structure fees around delivery milestones rather than elapsed time.

Platforms like Skema (skema.ai) support this shift by reducing re-counting and reinterpretation. Design intelligence persists across phases, supporting clearer scopes and pricing.

Faster delivery improves margin. Margin expands choice.

🧠TL;DR:

Outcome-based pricing is spreading across sustainability and energy services. New York offers a clear example. Clients favor measurable delivery. Firms that price around results gain traction.

🧰 Action Step:

Choose one service you already sell.

Rewrite it on one page:

• One measurable result
• How it will be verified
• Plain-language scope
• Fixed fee tied to delivery milestones
• Client inputs required

That page becomes a starting point for outcome-based pricing.

AIA guidance on fee setting helps frame scope and responsibility.

💬 Quote of the Week:

“Performance-based pricing is becoming the norm, especially in markets like New York City where regulatory frameworks reward verified reductions in energy use and emissions.”

— Colin Milner, Sustainable Investment Group

🧱RETROFIT THIS

The Value Based Paradigm Shift

🔧TOOLS DOWN

The billable hour made sense when time explained value.

Results explain value now.

Markets price what they can see, verify, and defend.

That shift is now reflecting in contracts, budgets, and expectations.

Limited Sponsorship Opportunities Available

Green Building Matters Podcast is now exploring a select number of brand partnerships with organizations aligned with the future of sustainable building.
Reach the professionals shaping the industry—and do it with intention.

✍️ Brian Bollinger, our Head Writer, helps sustainability pros connect the dots among best-in-class results, resilience and innovation.

🌍️ Charlie Cichetti, our Fearless Leader and LEED Fellow, has guided >150,000 professionals in building careers that adapt—and thrive—through change.

Let’s Green Up together.

👉 [Explore Sustainability Credentials at GBES.com]
👉 [See what Skema’s building for architects]
👉 [Book a Waste2Zero audit before your next LEED renewal]

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