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It's been sold as the ultimate no-brainer climate investment: Make a building that's more energy efficient, and you'll pocket the savings while avoiding harmful emissions.

With buildings accounting for 40 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, the "green" building has also gotten a look from Obama administration policymakers hoping to shrink the nation's carbon footprint.

Now a group of builders has issued a report arguing that the green-building vision may be more of a myth. You can make a building more energy efficient, the group says, but it won't come cheap, and it could take decades to pay off.

The report, released this week by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, found that a 50 percent energy improvement beyond federal standards is technically impossible. A 30 percent target is achievable, but only by adding a million-dollar solar system that could take up to 100 years to pay for itself.

Experts say it is one of the first efforts they have seen to question whether the green building's economic foundation is as solid as advocates claim.

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