Resources for Sustainable Buildings

Many helpful resources about sustainable design and operations are available to Federal facility managers and other personnel. These resources are listed below. FEMP also offers training opportunities about sustainable design and practices.

Federal High Performance Sustainable Buildings Checklist
Building Cost and Performance Metrics: Data Collection Protocol
Whole Building Design Guide
U.S. Green Building Council LEED® Rating System
Green Globes Rating System
High Performance Federal Buildings Database
Business Case for Sustainable Design in Federal Facilities
Sustainability and Security
Office of the Federal Environmental Executive
Online Guide for Energy Management at Federal Data Centers
Additional Resources

Federal High Performance Sustainable Buildings Checklist

The Federal High Performance Sustainable Buildings Checklist (Guiding Principles Checklist) is now available through EPA's web-based ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, an interactive energy and water management tool that allows users to track and assess energy and water consumption across entire building portfolios. Federal agencies that are assessing their existing building stock against the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Buildings can use the Guiding Principles Checklist to:

Conduct initial and final building walkthrough assessments
Track and easily view progress on each guiding principle
Upload compliance documents to the repository for record keeping
Create a portfolio-wide federal building sustainability roll-up report, and
Review up-to-date energy and water metrics generated by Portfolio Manager

Access the Federal High Performance Sustainable Buildings Checklist at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=government.federal_agencies.

Building Cost and Performance Metrics: Data Collection Protocol

This building cost and performance measurement protocol was developed to perform high-level comparative analysis of Federal sustainably-designed green building performance. This protocol offers water, energy, maintenance, waste and recycling, indoor environmental quality, and occupant commute indicators to represent building performance and cost. The high level building performance data can be used to inform the business case for sustainable design and operations.

Numerous agencies are using the protocol to measure whole building performance including the General Services Administration, U.S. Navy, Department of the Army, and the Department of Energy. For more information, contact Kim Fowler or Emily Rauch at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (kim.fowler@pnl.gov or emily.rauch@pnl.gov).

Whole Building Design Guide

The Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) is a Web-based tool providing information and resources to support sustainable design. These guidelines are produced and updated through an interagency effort. The fundamental strategies for sustainable buildings in the WBDG include the following:

Optimizing site potential
Minimizing energy consumption through efficiency and renewable energy
Protecting and conserving water
Conserving materials and using environmentally preferable products
Enhancing indoor environmental quality
Optimizing operations and maintenance (O&M) practices

LEED Rating System

One of the important sustainability frameworks for buildings is the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based rating system that awards different levels of green building certification based on total credit points earned. LEED gives credits for incorporating specific sustainable design strategies into a building design. The design strategy categories include the following:

Sustainable sites
Water efficiency
Energy and atmosphere
Materials and resources
Indoor environmental quality
Innovation and design process

The U.S. Green Building Council updates the rating system and adds new categories of buildings periodically. The currently approved system is for new construction or major renovation of commercial buildings; a pilot system addresses the operation of existing commercial buildings; and additional systems are under development for residential, laboratory, and other building types.

The U.S. Green Building Certification Institute maintains a database of LEED Projects, which is searchable by agency. The database will generate a list of Accredited Professionals for the chosen agency.

Green Globes Rating System

The Green Building Initiative's (GBI) Green Globes building design, assessment and rating program is a sustainable rating system available to Federal agencies. Green Globes offers a Web-based, comprehensive assessment of a building's environmental impacts on a 1,000 point scale in multiple categories, including energy, indoor environment, site, water, resources, emissions, and project/environmental management. A Green Globes third-party assessment includes a document review and a site tour with the facility sustainability team. GBI offers Green Globes for New Construction and Green Globes for Continual Improvement of Existing Buildings. In December 2009, GBI will begin offering the Green Globes Professional (GGP) training and certification for qualified professionals.

High Performance Federal Buildings Database

The High Performance Federal Buildings Database showcases sustainable, high performing buildings in the Federal Government. These buildings feature various combinations of energy-efficient practices, such as daylighting, and renewable energy technologies, such as building integrated photovoltaics. This database taps into the High Performance Buildings Database of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program and provides valuable project-related information. Depending on the project, this information can include details about finance, land use, building materials, and many other project elements.

Business Case for Sustainable Design in Federal Facilities

Sustainable building design has long been advocated for its positive impact on the environment and its ability to increase the well-being and productivity of a building's occupants. Only recently has a definitive economic case been made for sustainable design and operations in terms of life-cycle cost savings and little or no increase in the cost of construction. Sustainable design does not have to increase a facility's construction costs. In some cases, efficient buildings have lower first costs as well as reduced operating costs. For more information, please see The Business Case for Sustainable Design in Federal Facilities.

Sustainability and Security

The recent emphasis on security presents both challenges and opportunities to Federal agencies. By recognizing and using the surge of public interest in improved building security as an opportunity, agencies can address energy efficiency at the same time. Improved building security also contributes to broader goals, such as supporting an economy that's less vulnerable to energy supply and infrastructure disruptions. Sustainable and secure buildings can also generate long-term energy cost savings that will in turn lower the net costs of essential security improvements.

A FEMP white paper, Securing Buildings and Saving Energy: Opportunities in the Federal Sector provides examples of linkages between building security and energy-saving technologies and practices. A Checklist of Opportunities to Upgrade Energy Efficiency with Building Security presents a list of design and operation specifications related to building security measures.

Office of the Federal Environmental Executive

The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive's (OFEE) Federal Commitment to Green Building: Experiences and Expectations highlights the advances within the Federal Government, identifies barriers to greater progress, and provides recommendations for how the Federal sector can overcome obstacles and construct more sustainable buildings.

Online Guide for Energy Management at Federal Data Centers

Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the Federal sector (as well as local and state governmental facilities), having energy use and intensity typically orders of magnitude greater than other buildings. Data centers are also becoming increasingly common as Federal agencies cope with the increasing demands of having to handle enormous amounts of data. As an indication of the importance of public sector computing, many of the top 500 supercomputer centers are Federal or other public facilities. Previously exempt from executive orders for energy reduction, Federal data centers must now meet Federal requirements under the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 for 2% energy reductions per year.

The Online Guide for Energy Management at Federal Data Centers, co-funded by FEMP Technical Assistance, assists in identifying the best solutions for controlling energy use in these high-energy use facilities. The reality is that in the near term, energy use is likely to increase in these buildings as demands for more computing power increases, but steps taken now can minimize these increases and help show facility managers are addressing the goals of EPAct 2005.

Additional Resources

Below are additional Federal resources and information about sustainable practices.