Download or read book Issues in Green Building and the Federal Response written by Eric A. Fischer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) What Is Green Building (GB)?: Energy; Water; Materials; Waste; Health; Siting; Serviceability; Disaster Resistance; Integration: Balance Among Elements; Balance Across Stages; Interdependence; Leadership in Energy and Environ. Design (LEED); Other Systems: Performance; Cost; Measurement; Market Penetration; Approach; (3) Legislative and Policy Framework; Energy Policy Act of 1992, and 2005; Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; ARRA of 2009; Executive Order 13423, and 13514; (4) Programs and Activities of Selected Fed. Agencies; GSA; DoE; EPA; Office of the Fed. Environ. Exec.; NIST; HUD; (7) Issues for Congress: Oversight; Adoption and Implementation of GB. Charts and tables.

Download or read book Issues in Green Building and the Federal Response written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Issues in Green Building and the Federal Response: An Introduction Summary The construction, characteristics, operation, and demolition of buildings are increasingly recognized as a major source of environmental impact. [...] The desire to integrate the various elements of green building has led to the development of rating and certification systems to assess how well a building project meets a specified set of green criteria. [...] Among them are the General Services Administration, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. [...] Whether such growth rates will continue in the future is uncertain.2 • Use of water by buildings in the United States grew by more than 26% between 1985 and 2005.3 Such increases in water use are occurring in the context of stresses to the water supply caused by recent droughts and growing concerns about drying trends in the climates of western states.4 • Building demolition and construction accou [...] One milestone in the United States was the formation in 1990 of the Committee on the Environment within the American Institute of Architects (AIA),13 followed within a few years by the founding of the U. S. Green Building Council (USGBC)14 and other organizations.

Download or read book Issues in Green Building and the Federal Response An Introduction January 16 2009 written by Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Law of Green Buildings written by J. Cullen Howe and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2010 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the most important issues in achieving the goal of building more efficient and less damaging buildings, this book highlight the significant statutes and regulations as well as other legal issues that need to be considered when advising clients in the development, construction, financing, and leasing of a green building. Topics include federal incentive programs, financing, alternative energy, site selection, land use planning, green construction practices and materials, emerging legal issues, and the effects of climate change on planning and architectural design.

Download or read book Green Building written by U. s. Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013-03-15 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic, environmental, and health concerns have spurred interest in "green building"--construction and maintenance practices designed to make efficient use of resources, reduce environmental problems, and provide long-term financial and health benefits. Federal laws and executive orders direct agencies to meet green building standards in federal buildings and to foster green building in the nonfederal sector; the latter includes private, state, local, and tribal entities and accounts for the majority of the nation's buildings. GAO was asked to (1) identify current initiatives by federal agencies to foster green building in the nonfederal sector and (2) determine what is known about the results of these initiatives. As part of the review, GAO sent questionnaires to the 11 agencies implementing the initiatives identified, including the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); examined agency documents; and spoke with agency officials. GAO did not report funding data because officials stated that agencies do not track many green building funds separately. GAO identified 94 federal initiatives--implemented by 11 agencies--that foster green building in the nonfederal sector. About two-thirds of these initiatives are implemented by HUD (29 initiatives), EPA (18), and DOE (17). According to GAO's analysis of agency questionnaire responses, the initiatives vary in how they foster green building in the following ways: (1) Elements fostered. All initiatives foster at least one of six green building elements GAO identified. Three-quarters foster more than one element, and 21 initiatives across 7 agencies foster all six elements. (2) Direct or indirect fostering. Over two-thirds (64) of the initiatives foster green building directly, and the rest foster green building as part of a broader effort that is focused not primarily on green building but on other purposes, such as expanding the supply of affordable housing for low-income elderly. (3) Type of assistance. The initiatives provide multiple types of assistance, mostly through grants (47 initiatives) and technical assistance (45). (4) Recipients expected to benefit. The direct beneficiaries identified by agencies range from individual property owners and renters to state governments. About one-third of the initiatives have green building goals and performance measures; however, the overall results of most initiatives and their related investments are unknown. For example, according to HUD officials, to measure the results of the Green Retrofit Program for Multifamily Housing, HUD analyzes energy consumption data before and after retrofitting properties. Other agency officials reported various reasons for not having goals and measures, such as challenges in gathering reliable performance data. GAO identified some instances in which agencies have begun to collaborate to assess results but did not identify government wide collaboration on initiatives for the nonfederal sector. As GAO has reported, agencies and programs working collaboratively can often achieve more public value than when they work in isolation. Agencies with green building initiatives for the nonfederal sector may be missing opportunities to, among other things, reach agreement on government wide goals and measures for assessing the overall progress of their green building efforts. GAO recommends that DOE, HUD, and EPA lead an effort to collaborate with other agencies on assessing the results of federal green building initiatives for the nonfederal sector. DOE, HUD, and EPA generally agreed with the recommendation, and HUD and other agencies provided technical clarifications, which GAO incorporated into the report as appropriate.

Download or read book Achieving High Performance Federal Facilities written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-11-07 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design, construction, operation, and retrofit of buildings is evolving in response to ever-increasing knowledge about the impact of indoor environments on people and the impact of buildings on the environment. Research has shown that the quality of indoor environments can affect the health, safety, and productivity of the people who occupy them. Buildings are also resource intensive, accounting for 40 percent of primary energy use in the United States, 12 percent of water consumption, and 60 percent of all non-industrial waste. The processes for producing electricity at power plants and delivering it for use in buildings account for 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. federal government manages approximately 429,000 buildings of many types with a total square footage of 3.34 billion worldwide, of which about 80 percent is owned space. More than 30 individual departments and agencies are responsible for managing these buildings. The characteristics of each agency's portfolio of facilities are determined by its mission and its programs. In 2010, GSA's Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings asked the National Academies to appoint an ad hoc committee of experts to conduct a public workshop and prepare a report that identified strategies and approaches for achieving a range of objectives associated with high-performance green federal buildings. Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities identifies examples of important initiatives taking place and available resources. The report explores how these examples could be used to help make sustainability the preferred choice at all levels of decision making. Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities can serve as a valuable guide federal agencies with differing missions, types of facilities, and operating procedures.

Download or read book Building Energy Efficiency and Resilience in the United States One Disaster at a Time written by Jennifer Susan Bowmar and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Green building offers substantial and significant benefits, by reducing the raw natural resources necessary for construction as well as reducing water and energy consumption during the long-term operation of the building. Green buildings complement larger sustainable land use initiatives. And green building principles complement disaster resiliency of infrastructure. The federal government has recognized the benefits of green building, as evidenced by the push towards ensuring federally owned and occupied buildings meet green building certification standards. Few opportunities exist for communities to implement green building initiatives on a grand scale. Major disasters that bring widespread devastation destruction also bring unparalleled opportunities to rebuild from the ground up with green building as a priority. As financier of much of the disaster recovery process, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in a key position to foster green building principles during the response and recovery phases following a Presidentially-declared major disaster; however, FEMA's currently existing disaster assistance authorities largely fail to provide sufficient flexibility to finance green building projects. A new FEMA administered grant program, a Green Building Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program, could fill the gaps left within the existing disaster assistance programs, to not only assist in disaster recovery but foster and promote green building disaster recovery."--Leaf iii.

Download or read book The Federal Commitment to Green Building Experiences and Expectations written by The Office The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive and published by . This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses, for the first time, what the Federal government is doing, in policy and practice, to make its buildings more environmentally sustainable, and provides recommendations for how the Federal sector can make even greater progress.Why is this important? Green or sustainable building is the practice of designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and removing buildings in ways that conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Green building is expanding around the world, and the Federal government is leading by example. This approach is important for the Federal government (and has become one of our office's priorities) for three reasons.First, buildings affect land use, energy use, communities, and the indoor and outdoor environment. Given the size and scope of Federal buildings - the government owns nearly 500,000 buildings covering 3.1 billion square feet, accounting for 0.4 percent of the nation's energy usage, and emitting about 2 percent of all U.S. building-related greenhouse gases - we have the opportunity and responsibility to reduce these impacts. Using sustainable principles in buildings can reduce these impacts and also improve worker conditions and productivity, increase energy, water, and material efficiency, and reduce costs and risks.Second, sustainable buildings can be showcases to educate people about environmental issues, possible solutions, partnerships, creativity, and opportunities for reducing environmental impacts in our everyday lives. Hundreds of millions of people visit and work in Federal facilities each year. And third, green buildings represent the application in one place of many of the sustainable concepts the Federal government is working on - such as environmental management systems, waste prevention and recycling, and green product purchases.We prepared this book because there is no other single source of information about what all the Federal government is doing to "green" its building stock, and, by doing so, we hope to spark discussion and create opportunities for greater Federal stewardship.

Download or read book Green Building Practices in the Federal Sector written by United States. Congress and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-12-23 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green building practices in the federal sector : progress and challenges to date : hearing before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, second session, July 21, 2010.

Download or read book Green Building Practices in the Federal Sector written by United States House of Representatives and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green building practices in the federal sector: progress and challenges to date: hearing before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, second session, July 21, 2010.

Download or read book Green Building written by U.s. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Economic, environmental, and health concerns have spurred interest in "green building"-construction and maintenance practices designed to make efficient use of resources, reduce environmental problems, and provide long-term financial and health benefits. Federal laws and executive orders direct agencies to meet green building standards in federal buildings and to foster green building in the nonfederal sector; the latter includes private, state, local, and tribal entities and accounts for the majority of the nation's buildings.GAO was asked to (1) identify current initiatives by federal agencies to foster green building in the nonfederal sector and (2) determine what is known about the results of these initiatives. As part of the review, GAO sent questionnaires to the 11 agencies implementing the initiatives identified, including the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); examined agency documents; and spoke with agency officials. GAO did not report funding data because officials stated that agencies do not track many green building funds separately. "

Download or read book Federal Green Building written by Frank Rusco and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-20 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the nation's largest energy consumer, the federal government spent about $7 billion in FY 2014 to provide energy to over 275,000 federally owned or leased buildings. Federal law and policies for improving sustainability across the federal government include "green building" provisions -- construction and maintenance practices designed to make efficient use of resources and reduce environmental impacts, among other benefits. This report reviewed federal green building efforts and agencies' use of third-party certification systems. It examines (1) federal efforts to support agencies' implementation of key green building requirements; (2) select agencies' use of third-party certification systems; and (3) challenges select agencies face in implementing requirements. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.

Download or read book Current Critical Issues in Environmental Law written by Mark J. Bennett and published by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender. This book was released on 2008 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Green Building and Sustainable Development written by Jonathan E. Furr and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2009 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legal and economic landscape for building and development have fundamentally been altered by the country's major environmental problems - climate change, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, ozone depletion, pollution, and unsustainable natural resource consumption rates. The editors provide practical information for lawyers to assist their clients in fully understanding green building and sustainable development concepts so they can operate successfully in the evolving economic and regulatory environment while minimizing the potential cost penalty of business-as-usual practices.

Download or read book Greening Our Built World written by Greg Kats and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Green” buildings—buildings that use fewer resources to build and to sustain—are commonly thought to be too expensive to attract builders and buyers. But are they? The answer to this question has enormous consequences, since residential and commercial buildings together account for nearly 50% of American energy consumption—including at least 75% of electricity usage—according to recent government statistics. This eye-opening book reports the results of a large-scale study based on extensive financial and technical analyses of more than 150 green buildings in the U.S. and ten other countries. It provides detailed findings on the costs and financial benefits of building green. According to the study, green buildings cost roughly 2% more to build than conventional buildings—far less than previously assumed—and provide a wide range of financial, health and social benefits. In addition, green buildings reduce energy use by an average of 33%, resulting in significant cost savings. Greening Our Built World also evaluates the cost effectiveness of “green community development” and presents the results of the first-ever survey of green buildings constructed by faith-based organizations. Throughout the book, leading practitioners in green design—including architects, developers, and property owners—share their own experiences in building green. A compelling combination of rock-solid facts and specific examples, this book proves that green design is both cost-effective and earth-friendly.

Download or read book Navigating Green Construction and Energy Initiatives written by and published by Thomson West. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Navigating Green Construction and Energy Initiatives is an authoritative, insiders perspective on the strategic thinking behind implementing more sustainable building and energy practices throughout the United States. Featuring state and municipal environmental and energy directors from across the country, this book provides a broad yet comprehensive overview of the efforts being made to invest in renewable energy and green infrastructure, as well as the challenges of promoting green development, including educating communities, renovating older buildings, financing improvement programs, and offering incentives for adopting new practices. These leaders articulate the finer points of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and address the benefits of and obstacles to meeting these standards. From achieving commercial and citizen buy-in for new policies to budgeting for projects today that will improve environment quality for tomorrow, the authors share their success stories and offer advice for continued improvement of energy conservation and efficiency efforts. The different niches represented and the breadth of perspectives presented enable readers to get inside some of the great minds in government today, as these experts reveal the secrets behind creating a greener nation.

Download or read book Climate Energy and Environment Issues Analyses and Developments written by Jake S. Diaz and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2016-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first chapter in this fourth volume of "Climate, Energy, and Environment: Issues, Analyses, and Developments" presents current topical research in the study of green building services, which include construction, architecture, engineering, and related activities aimed at creating sustainable structures using environmentally responsible processes and materials. Chapter Two discusses industry trends, global competition, and federal support of U.S. solar photovoltaic manufacturing. Chapter Three identifies the mechanisms behind the surprising decline in U.S. petroleum consumption relative to both recent levels and past projections. Chapter Four discusses the scientific understanding of the effects of ocean acidification; the extent to which federal agencies have implemented the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2009 (FOARAM); and additional actions, if any, that could be taken to advance the federal response to ocean acidification. Chapter Five provides a summary of recommendation for carbon dioxide storage in unconventional reservoirs workshop. Chapter Six concludes this volume with a description of the issues facing corrections policy and leadership as the impacts of climate change and its related consequences confront departments, agencies, and facilities in coming years.