Sustainable Design

Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and

the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building
performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of
non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive
environments.
Sustainable design principles include the ability to:

 optimize site potential;

 minimize non-renewable energy consumption;
 use environmentally preferable products;
 protect and conserve water;
 enhance indoor environmental quality; and
 optimize operational and maintenance practices.

Utilizing a sustainable design philosophy encourages decisions at each phase of

the design process that will reduce negative impacts on the environment and the
health of the occupants, without compromising the bottom line. It is an integrated,
holistic approach that encourages compromise and tradeoffs. Such an integrated
approach positively impacts all phases of a building's life-cycle, including design,
construction, operation and decommissioning.
GSA and Sustainable Design
The Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 addressed U.S. energy production, and
included building-related provisions to "design new federal buildings to achieve
energy efficiency at least 30 percent better than ASHRAE 90.1 standards, where
life-cycle cost effective."
In 2006, 19 federal agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding
committing to "federal leadership in the design, construction, and operation of
High-Performance Sustainable Buildings." This interagency memo yielded what
is now called the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings, and
charged agencies to optimize buildings' performance while maximizing assets'
life-cycle value. Executive Orders, including 2007's E.O. 13423 Strengthening
Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management, have required
Federal agencies to make annual progress toward 100% portfolio compliance
with the Guiding Principles.

The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 established

additional environmental management goals. New GSA buildings and major
renovations must meet requirements including reducing fossil-fuel-generated
energy consumption by 65 percent by 2015 and by 100 percent by 2030, and
managing water from 95th percentile rain events onsite.

In 2015, Executive Order 13693 Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next
Decade built upon and superseded Executive Orders 13423 and 13514. It
established goals for federal agencies through fiscal year (FY) 2025, including:

 Reduce building energy intensity (British thermal units per gross square
foot) by 2.5 percent annually, relative to the agency's FY 2015 baseline
building energy use;
 Reduce potable water consumption intensity (gallons per gross square
foot) by 2 percent annually, relative to the agency's FY 2007 baseline
water consumption; and
 Identify a percentage of at least 15 percent of the agency's existing
buildings above 5,000 gross square feet that comply with
the revised Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings. These
revised Guiding Principles were issued by the Council on Environmental
Quality in 2016.

GSA created a 21-item Guiding Principles Checklist (GPC) to track new

construction and major renovation projects' compliance with the Guiding
Principles in categories of Integrated Design, Energy, Water, Indoor
Environmental Quality, and Materials. The GPC references related statutory
mandates and LEED credits to streamline compliance reporting for project team
members. Regional project delivery teams report Guiding Principles compliance,
among other sustainability details, via GSA's gBUILD (Green Building Upgrade
Information Lifecycle Database) system.
GSA carefully incorporates sustainable design and energy efficiency principles
into its construction & modernization projects. The result is a solid balance of
cost, environmental, societal, and human benefits that help meet tenant
agencies' mission objectives and functional needs. GSA strives to seamlessly
integrate sustainable design into project delivery.
GSA and LEED
GSA uses the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED®) green building certification system as a tool for
evaluating and measuring achievements in sustainable design. LEED® consists
of a set of prerequisites and credits with specific requirements for obtaining
points in order for a building to become LEED® certified. GSA uses LEED® to
ensure that sustainable strategies are considered in the development of all GSA
building projects. GSA requires, at a minimum, new construction and substantial
renovation of Federally-owned facilities to be LEED® Gold.
Sustainability Matters
Sustainability Matters [PDF - 115.11 KB] is a publication of case studies and
best-practices that address GSA’s sustainability initiatives and strategies at all
stages of a building’s lifecycle. Sustainability Matters is the first comprehensive
overview by a federal agency related to the issues of building, operating and
maintaining facilities sustainably.

Sustainable Facilities Tool

The Sustainable Facilities Tool is a one-stop online resource to support decision-

making regarding sustainable building principles, materials and systems.
Targeted to help project personnel identify and prioritize cost-effective,
sustainable strategies for small projects, the Sustainable Facilities Tool helps
users understand and select environmentally preferable solutions for
renovations, alterations and leases.