Green Concepts and Vocabulary 7

certification standards and levels for all Federal buildings. It is well known
that the General Services Administration (GSA) was one of the first adopters
of LEED-NC. The GSA became committed to incorporating principles of
sustainable design and energy efficiency into all of its building projects. It is
the intent of the GSA that sustainable design will be integrated as effortlessly
as possible into the existing design and construction process. In this regard
the GSA recently announced that it will be applying more stringent green
building standards to its $12 billion construction portfolio which includes
more than 361 million square feet of space in 9600 federally owned and leased
facilities occupied by more than 1.2 million federal employees and consisting
of post offices, courthouses, border stations, and other buildings. The GSA
decided to use the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Green Building Rating System of the USGBC as its tool for evaluating and
measuring achievements in its sustainable design programs. In keeping with
the spirit of sustainability, the GSA recently increased its minimum standard
requirement for new construction and substantial renovation of Federally
owned facilities by adopting the LEED Gold standard, which is the next
highest level of certification (just below Platinum). Until recently, the GSA
had only required a LEED Silver certification. In justifying this move, Robert
Peck, GSA Commissioner of Public Buildings stated, “Sustainable, better-
performing federal buildings can significantly contribute to reducing the
government’s environmental footprint,” and “This new requirement is just
one of the many ways we’re greening the federal real estate inventory to
help deliver on President Obama’s commitment to increase sustainability and
energy efficiency across government.”
The CEO and Founding Chairman of the USGBC, Richard Fedrizzi
echoed the Federal government’s lead in adopting green building practices
when he said, “The Federal government has been at the forefront of the
sustainable building movement since its inception, providing resources,
pioneering best practices and engaging multiple Federal agencies in the
mission of transforming the built environment.” A first-ever “White
House Summit on Federal Sustainable Buildings” conference was held
on January 24–25, 2006. This summit attracted over 150 Federal facility
managers and decision makers in addition to 21 government agencies
to formulate and witness the signing of the “Federal Leadership in High
Performance and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU)”. Agencies that signed this MOU all committed to federal lead-
ership in the design, construction, and operation of high-performance
and sustainable buildings. The signing of the MOU highlights the sense