In a cooperative with the National
Association of Counties, the Courthouse Campaign program was
recently launched to promote more energy efficient and
environmentally sound county facilities. Another DOE
program, Rebuild America, forges partnerships with
organizations as well as whole communities, from small towns to
entire metropolitan centers, to focus on energy efficiency and
better building practices. Its Million Solar Roofs
Initiative leads DOE’s effort to assist with the
placement of one million solar energy systems on the roofs of
buildings across America by the year 2010. To bolster
this effort, the first Solar Decathlon student competition was
held in 2002 (the next installation will occur in 2005) to
promote the most environmentally effective and aesthetically
appealing solar powered homes. And not surprisingly, the
National Park Service, with its sustainable design initiative,
is headed toward full commitment to environmental integrity in
all aspects of its operations.
The means are also available to make the
transition to healthier and more cost conscious operations in
all buildings, especially those supported by taxpayer dollars,
more achievable. Use of Energy Star rated office
equipment (computers, copiers, printers and appliances),
purchasing high recycled content paper supplies, using soy
based inks, double sided copying and printing, using video
conferencing in lieu of travel are all relatively easy changes
to implement. In essence, the commitment to elevating the
design and construction of whole buildings to a more
sustainable level is simply an extension of these sorts of
measures to a much larger scale.
LEADERS IN THE MOVEMENT
In the fall of 2002, the nation’s largest
landlord, the General Services Administration, made the
official commitment to achieving environmental and economic
balance across the board. All projects the GSA’s
2003 budget had a stated goal of achieving a LEED Silver
certification. It took the better part of six years,
beginning with a federal courthouse in Denver, Colorado, but
this agency realized early on the benefits of green buildings
to its tenants (mostly government workers). Healthier
places to work translate to more productivity in addition to
lower operating costs and longer lasting facilities.
Along with the GSA, the Navy and other branches of the
armed services have committed to “green.” Long
known for the efficacy with which they perform, the military
has taken to LEED as a real tool to further sharpen operations
for sustained benefit to their own as well as to those of us
they are charged with protecting.
Local and state governments are also
following suit. Across the country, environmental
building policies and programs abound. Seattle has its
sustainable building policy which heavily emphasizes LEED.
Portland is one of the true leaders in municipal
commitment with its
LEED based green building program (in
fact, the upcoming USGBC conference, “Greenbuild”
is to be held there this fall). San Jose, Boulder, Denver,
Austin, Texas, Scottsdale, Chicago, and a host of other areas
all have similar high commitment and well established
initiatives and programs. At the state level, New York
has instituted its state green building initiative with tax
incentives for developers and builders of environmentally
responsible projects. Recognized as a leader in adopting
sustainable building practices for facilities used by state
government, Pennsylvania has 47 projects either in use, under
construction or being planned using LEED. It also was the
first state government in the country to purchase green power.
It has mandated that no less than five percent of all
electricity used by the state government be provided by green
sources such as wind, solar, landfill gas or hydroelectric.
In our own state, Arlington County has
required public projects to follow LEED guidelines for about
the past six years. They now require developers to use
the LEED sustainable sites score card when submitting site
plans for review, in addition to documenting other
environmental strategies in their project. To encourage
the commitment to better practices, the county requires
developers to pay into a green building fund which can be
avoided if LEED certification is achieved. Furthermore,
limits on certain floor area requirements are relaxed to
provide additional incentive to meet the standards.
Universities across the country (many
state owned and subsidized) have begun to require LEED as the
benchmark in their capital projects. Here in Virginia,
Old Dominion University is awaiting evaluation of its new
engineering and computational sciences building for LEED
certification and is in planning stages for other facilities
with LEED aspirations. Additionally, the University of
Richmond recently completed a new academic building that is
currently being evaluated for LEED certification. In
fact, the university’s master plan now requires
achievement of the highest environmental goals possible with
each new project.
At the current rate of progress, there
will come a day in the foreseeable
