While stormwater compliance might be the first federal environmental program that comes to mind in the construction industry, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) other half provides voluntary, "green" building tools and resources.
From ENERGY STAR to Environmentally Preferable Purchasing to GreenScapes, EPA provides guidance to help the businesses go beyond compliance with regulations to enhance the environment and human health-all leading to a company's competitive advantage and an improved bottom-line. For more information, visit www.epa.gov/greenbuilding.
If your company hasn't been asked to employ "green" building materials and methods on a project yet, chances are you will be soon. Environmentally preferable and healthy building practices for homes, offices, retail, hospitals, etc. are becoming mainstream due to rising energy costs and the public's increasing environmental awareness. And the market is responding to this demand with a mind-boggling number of building materials and rating schemes claiming their environmental superiority in as many ways.
The green building market is expected to become a $60 billion industry within the next five years.
While certain practices have become the norm for green projects, construction firms are increasingly finding not only new materials and methods specified, but new approaches to incorporating "green" in construction documents. A new model from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may set the benchmark for construction specs-helping to level the playing field among construction firms seeking to "go green."
Whose Role is It?
Think that green building is only the architect's role? Think again. Construction firms hold tremendous responsibility when it comes to the environmental performance of a building project. In fact, approximately thirty-nine points in U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) are dependent upon the contractor's actions. The following are just a sampling of the ways in which contractors can contribute to green building:
- erosion and sediment control
- construction waste management
- building material selection
- indoor air quality management during construction
- construction equipment retrofits to control diesel emissions
- oil spill prevention
- noise and light pollution prevention
- tree and stream preservation
- building commissioning coordination
The Federal Government: Leading by Example
Owning approximately 445,000 buildings and leasing an additional 57,000 buildings-the largest real estate portfolio in the world-the federal government recognizes that its facilities have tremendous impact on the natural environment, the economy and the thousands of people that work in, live in and visit these buildings every day. Stepping up to this responsibility, the federal government has promulgated a number of policies, mandates and Executive Orders that establish "green minimums" and guide federal agencies in their decision-making during the design, specification and construction phases of a new building and/or renovation.
Many agencies are incorporating ENERGY STAR (a joint program of the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy to promote savings plus protection of the environment) and the LEED® rating system into construction and renovation projects. In addition, several agencies have implemented their own green building programs and policies that raise the bar beyond compliance with the aforementioned green mandates and further address areas such as green power, healthy indoor environments, environmentally preferable construction products, low impact landscaping techniques and sustainable brownfield redevelopment.
And so, federal building construction projects are subject to countless environmental goals and mandates, including:
- The Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings, www.wbdg.org
- EPA's Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, www.epa.gov/oppt/epp
- Greening of the Government Executive Orders, www.ofee.gov
- EPA's Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for recovered content, www.epa.gov/cpg
- USDA's Biobased Purchasing Program, www.biobased.oce.usda.gov
- ENERGY STAR® and the Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Product Efficiency Recommendations.
- The Energy Policy Act of 2005
- ASTM International standards, LEED®, Green GlobesTM and other rating systems and standards
The Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers
Despite these strong mandates, the federal government continues to face challenges in implementing green building. A key issue has been that, although a "Solicitation for Offers" may state an agency's general environmental goals for the project, there is
