Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers
Last updated: 12-27-2007
Welcome!
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Thank you for your interest in the Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers!
To address the need for a comprehensive guide for procuring green building products and construction services within the Federal government, EPA has partnered with the Federal Environmental Executive and the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) to develop the Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers.
Guide Objectives
To help federal agencies meet their project-specific environmental goals & mandates including:
- Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding
- EPA's Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
- Greening of Government Executive Orders
- EPA's Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for recovered content
- USDA's Biobased Purchasing Program
- ENERGY STAR® & DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Product Efficiency Recommendations
- Energy Policy Act of 2005
- ASTM, LEED, Green Globes, and other rating systems and standards
- And other 'best practices' as determined via industry and public comment
Comment Period
A draft of the Guide was open for public comment from July 27, 2004 through January 14, 2005. We were pleased by the overwhelming response to our call for public comments. More than 100 comments, many which contained multiple parts, were submitted over the extended six-month period. Comments received can be viewed at regulations.gov (Advance Search > Document Search: "EPA-HQ-OPPT-2004-0092").
The majority of comments received provided helpful technical suggestions for updating the model language in the Guide. We have adopted these changes in the new version. Unfortunately, we were not able to accommodate the development of new sections at this time. However, we look forward to working with federal agencies and the private sector to assist us in expanding the guide to address new green building approaches and materials over the next few years.
Finally, there were some comments that we were not able to completely accept. The objective of this voluntary guidance document is to recognize approaches that go beyond minimum compliance with regulations and assist federal agencies in meeting pollution prevention, EPP, and other green mandates already in place. EPA is given the authority under EO 13101 to provide guidance to agencies in meeting these requirements.
Contact Information
For more information about the scope, purpose, and use of the Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers, please see the Frequently Asked Questions or contact Alison Kinn Bennett at 202-564-8859 or kinn.alison@epa.gov. As this is a "living document," comments are always welcome and can be submitted via the "comments" button at the bottom of each page.
