Sustainable

by the WBDG Sustainable Committee

Last updated: 01-21-2010

Overview

Building construction and operation have extensive direct and indirect impacts on the environment. Buildings use resources such as energy, water and raw materials, generate waste (occupant, construction and demolition) and emit potentially harmful atmospheric emissions. Building owners, designers and builders face a unique challenge to meet demands for new and renovated facilities that are accessible, secure, healthy, and productive while minimizing their impact on the environment.

Considering the current economic challenges, retrofitting an existing building can be more cost effective than building a new facility. Designing major renovations and retrofits for existing buildings to include sustainability initiatives reduces operation costs and environmental impacts, and can increase building resiliency.

Recent answers to this challenge call for an integrated, synergistic approach that considers all phases of the facility life cycle. This approach, often called "sustainable design," supports an increased commitment to environmental stewardship and conservation, and results in an optimal balance of cost, environmental, societal, and human benefits while meeting the mission and function of the intended facility or infrastructure.

The main objectives of sustainable design are to avoid resource depletion of energy, water, and raw materials; prevent environmental degradation caused by facilities and infrastructure throughout their life cycle; and create built environments that are livable, comfortable, safe, and productive.

While the definition of sustainable building design is constantly changing, six fundamental principles persist.

• Optimize Site/Existing Structure Potential
  Creating sustainable buildings starts with proper site selection, including consideration of the reuse or rehabilitation of existing buildings. The location, orientation, and landscaping of a building affect the local ecosystems, transportation methods, and energy use. Incorporate Smart growth principles in the project development process, whether it be a single building, campus or military base. Siting for physical security is a critical issue in optimizing site design, including locations of access roads, parking, vehicle barriers, and perimeter lighting. Whether designing a new building or retrofitting an existing building, site design must integrate with sustainable design to achieve a successful project.
• Optimize Energy Use
  With America's supply of fossil fuel dwindling, concerns for energy independence and security increasing, and the impacts of global climate change arising, it is essential to find ways to reduce load, increase efficiency, and utilize renewable energy resources in federal facilities.
• Protect and Conserve Water
  In many parts of the country, fresh water is an increasingly scarce resource. A sustainable building should reduce, control, and/or treat site runoff, use water efficiently, and reuse or recycle water for on-site use, when feasible.
• Use Environmentally Preferable Products
  A sustainable building is constructed of materials that minimize life-cycle environmental impacts such as global warming, resource depletion, and human toxicity. Environmentally preferable materials have a reduced effect on human health and the environment and contribute to improved worker safety and health, reduced liabilities, reduced disposal costs, and achievement of environmental goals.
• Enhance Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
  The indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of a building has a significant impact on occupant health, comfort, and productivity. Among other attributes, a sustainable building maximizes daylighting; has appropriate ventilation and moisture control; and avoids the use of materials with high-VOC emissions. Additionally, consider ventilation and filtration to mitigate chemical, biological, and radiological attack.
• Optimize Operational and Maintenance Practices
  Considering a building's operating and maintenance issues during the preliminary design phase of a facility will contribute to improved working environments, higher productivity, reduced energy and resource costs, and prevented system failures. Encourage building operators and maintenance personnel to participate in the design and development phases to ensure optimal operations and maintenance of the building. Designers can specify materials and systems that simplify and reduce maintenance requirements; require less water, energy, and toxic chemicals and cleaners to maintain; and are cost-effective and reduce life-cycle costs. Additionally, design facilities to include meters in order to track the progress of sustainability initiatives, including reductions in energy and water use and waste generation, in the facility and on site.

Related Issues

Building resiliency is the capacity of a building to continue to function and operate under extreme conditions, such as (but not limited to) extreme temperatures, sea level rise, natural disasters, etc. As the built environment faces the impending effects of global climate change, building owners, designers, and builders can design facilities to optimize building resiliency.

Building adaptability is the capacity of a building to be used for multiple uses and in multiple ways over the life of the building. For example, designing a building with movable walls/partitions allow for different users to change the space. Additionally, using sustainable design allows for a building to adapt to different environments and conditions.

Relevant Codes and Standards

• ASTM E2432—Standard Guide for the General Principles of Sustainability Relative to Building
• Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA 2007) (PDF 738 KB, 310 pgs).
• Energy Policy Act of 2005 (PDF 1.9 MB, 550 pgs)
• Executive Order 13423, "Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management"

Major Resources

WBDG

Building / Space Types

Applicable to most building types and space types.

Design Objectives

Information in these Sustainable pages must be considered together with other design objectives and within a total project context in order to achieve quality, high—performance buildings.

Products and Systems

Building Envelope Design Guide—Sustainability of the Building Envelope
Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers:

• 01 10 00 (01100) Summary
• 01 30 00 (01300) Administrative Requirements
• 01 40 00 (01400) Quality Requirements
• 01 41 00 (01411) Regulatory Requirements
• 01 42 00 (01421) References
• 01 50 00 (01500) Temporary Facilities & Controls
• 01 74 19 (01351) Construction Waste Management
• 01 78 23 (01830) Operation & Maintenance Data
• 01 78 53 (01780) Sustainable Design Close-Out Documentation
• 01 79 11 (01821) Environmental Demonstration and Training
• 01 91 00 (01810) Commissioning

Project Management

Building Commissioning

Tools

Building Life-Cycle Cost (BLCC), Construction Waste Management Database, Decision Support Tools for Green Building, LEED® Version 2.1 Credit / WBDG Resource Page Matrix, LEED®-DoD Antiterrorism Standards Tool, Sustainable Federal Buildings Database

Federal Agencies

• Executive Order 13423 Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management
• Department of Defense
• U.S. Army, ERDC – CERL—Sustainable Design and Development Resource website
• U.S. Army, U.S. Army Sustainability website
• U.S. Army—Army Corps of Engineers, EKO website
• U.S. Navy—The U.S. Navy Sustainable Development section of WBDG
• U.S. Air Force – AFCEE—Sustainable Development website
• Department of Energy
• Building Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Net Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• High Performance Buildings Database, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• FEMP Sustainable Buildings and Campuses
• FEMP Interagency Sustainability Working Group
• Smart Communities Network—Green Buildings
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Green Building website
• Greening EPA website
• General Services Administration
• Sustainable Design website
• Sustainable Development Program website, Office of Real Property—This website has links to tools, publications, presentations and videos developed by GSA to assist agencies in transforming the way they do business.
• NASA
• Sustainability website

Publications

Federal

• Sustainability Matters by GSA
• Field Guide for Sustainable Construction by the Pentagon Renovation and Construction Program Office, Department of Defense. 2004.
• Greening Federal Facilities Guide by U.S. Department of Energy. 2001.
• GSA LEED® Applications Guide
• GSA LEED® Cost Study
• Innovative Workplace Strategies by U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of Real Property. Dec 2003.
• Managing Your Environmental Responsibilities: A Planning Guide for Construction and Development by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2005.
• The New Sustainable Frontier: Principles of Sustainable Development by U.S. General Services Administration. 2009.
• Office of Federal Environmental Executive
• Real Property Sustainable Development Guide by U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of Real Property.
• Sustainable Building Rating Systems Summary
• Sustainable Building Technical Manual by U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1996.
• Sustainable Development and Society by U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Governmentwide Policy, Office of Real Property. Oct 2004.
• Air Force Sustainable Facilities Guide

States and Universities

• Governor's Green Government Council Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• High Performance Building Guidelines (PDF 2.2 MB, 146 pgs) by New York City Department of Design and Construction. April 1999.
• Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide by Regents of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
• UB High Performance Building Guidelines by the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. 2004.

Cost

• Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits by Gregory Kats. 2003.
• Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development by Federal Facilities Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001.

Magazines and E-Newsletters

• eco-structure Magazine—A bi-monthly magazine dedicated to improving the environmental performance of buildings and their surroundings.
• Building Green.com from Environmental Building News
• Environmental Design & Construction Magazine
• Sustainable Facility—Magazine dedicated to high-performance buildings and optimal energy and resource management. Sustainable Facility highlights news, green facilities, and current trends and programs from national organizations.

Organizations

• The Green Building Initiative (GBI)
• Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC)
• U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System

Others

• Building Green from Principle to Practice—Online resource created by the Natural Resources Defense Council guides building professionals through green building process, from putting together a business case to design, construction and marketing.
• FedCenter.gov—FedCenter, the Federal Facilities Environmental Stewardship and Compliance Assistance Center, is a collaborative effort between the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, and the U.S. EPA Federal Facilities Enforcement Office. FedCenter replaces the previous FedSite as a one-stop source of environmental stewardship and compliance assistance information focused solely on the needs of federal government facilities.
• Green Building Program, City of Austin, TX
• Green Building Advisor
• Greener Buildings—A website produced by Green Business Network, a program of the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF), to help companies understand and address building design, construction, and operation in a way that aligns environmental responsibility with business success.