Green building practices emerged to mitigate the effects of the increasing impact on the environment and to improve the building construction process. In this context, a systematic bibliometric analysis is provided. As a result, 124 articles were found in 40 internationally recognized scientific journals related to green buildings. A quantitative analysis is done to the articles in order to know about the authors and countries with most publications; in addition to their evolution from 1980 to 2011. Then a qualitative analysis which aims to obtain the key aspects and obstacles to consider in Green Building and recommendations are given for each aspect. The goal of this paper is to provide building researchers and practitioners a better understanding of how to effectively make decisions to promote energy conservation and sustainability of green buildings. (link)