The Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE) advises the executive and legislative branches of government, other governmental and private sector organizations, and the general public on questions of technology, science, and public policy applied to:

• the design, construction, operations, maintenance, security, and evaluation of buildings, facilities, and infrastructure systems;
• the relationship between the constructed and natural environments and their interaction with human activities;
• the effects of natural and manmade hazards on constructed facilities and infrastructure
• the interdependencies of infrastructure systems (power, water, transportation, telecommunications, wastewater, buildings) and the potential for cascading failures

The BICE brings together in an independent forum expertise from a wide range of scientific, engineering, and social science disciplines to address problems and issues in these areas. It provides a unique structure to respond to specific requests from government, or to act on its own initiative with public or private sector support. To respond to requests, the BICE oversees committee activities involving studies, briefings, workshops, symposia, and a variety of information dissemination activities.
Established in 1946 as the Building Research Advisory Board, BICE and its predecessor organizations have been the principal units of the NRC concerned with the built environment. Although advisory services make up the bulk of BICE activities, a number of specific programs have been created and maintained over the years, the most significant and longest running of which is the Federal Facilities Council.
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	Recent Publications
	BICE Brochure in PDF
	Predicting Outcomes of Investments in Maintenance and Repair of Federal Facilities (2012). This report identifies processes and practices for transforming the current portfolio of federal facilities into one that is more economically, physically, and environmentally sustainable. It addresses ways to predict or quantify the outcomes that can be expected from a given level of maintenance and repair investments in federal facilities or facilities' systems, and what strategies, measures, and data should be in place to determine the actual outcomes of facilities maintenance and repair investments.
	Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities: Strategies and Approaches for Transformational Change (2011). This report identifies 12 strategies and approaches that can be used by federal agencies to develop facilities that use less energy, potable water, fossil fuels, and materials; produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions; have improved indoor environmental quality; minimize waste and pollutants through source reduction; and meet other federal policy objectives.

 You can find more BICE reports at the National Academies Press.