Executive Order 13423 Technical Guidance for Implementing the Five Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings
Introduction
As directed in EO 13423, the Interagency Sustainability Working Group has developed this technical guidance to assist agencies in meeting EO goals and statutory requirements. This technical guidance includes clarification of requirements; related mandates; additional recommendations and considerations; and resources for implementation, including model contract and specification language per the Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers.
The ISWG shall review the Guiding Principles and Technical Guidance periodically for updates and to consider adopting additional principles or goals addressing issues such as conservation plantings, integrated pest management, deconstruction, and siting.
Notice - High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Guidance
New guidance on High Performance Federal Buildings was issued December 5, 2008. It includes revised Guiding Principles for new construction, new Guiding Principles for existing buildings, clarification of reporting guidelines for entering information on the sustainability data element (#25) in the Federal Real Property Profile, and an explanation of how to calculate the percentage of buildings and square footage that are compliant with the Guiding Principles for agencies' scorecard input. The WBDG will be updated in the coming months to reflect these changes.
A set of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on this guidance, is also provided below. These FAQs are based on comments received during the development of this guidance, and will be updated as necessary.
To begin, select a topic:
Background
On January 24-25, 2006, more than 150 Federal facility managers and decision makers came together at the first-ever "White House Summit on Federal Sustainable Buildings" to witness the signing of the "Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)." The MOU was the flagship Federal effort to define guiding principles of green building and provide leadership in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of high performance and sustainable buildings.
The five Guiding Principles address:
- Employing integrated design;
- Optimizing energy performance;
- Protecting and conserving water;
- Enhancing indoor environmental quality; and
- Reducing the environmental impact of materials.
To build from this and other accomplishments and to pave the way for future success, President Bush signed Executive Order 13423 "Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy and Transportation Management" on January 24, 2007. The new Executive Order (EO) consolidates and strengthens a number of prior EOs by establishing new and updated goals, practices, and reporting requirements for environmental, energy, and transportation performance and accountability.
In the area of sustainable design and high performance buildings, the new EO makes mandatory the five Guiding Principles of the MOU for all new construction and major renovations and sets an aggressive goal for applying these practices to our existing capital assets over the next decade.
