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Executive Summary
BACKGROUND
Sustainable development as an integrated concept for buildings seeks to reverse
the trends in the architectural and engineering communities that focus on first costs and
treat each discipline's contribution to the whole building as separate, independent efforts.
Sustainable development integrates all of the design disciplines so that limited resources
are efficiently directed toward the goal of meeting user needs without setting one
program need against another. The precepts for sustainability are that all resources are
limited and it is less expensive short and long term to build in harmony with the
environment.
On June 3, 1999, Executive Order 13123, "Greening the Government Through
Efficient Energy Management" was signed. Its preamble states that
with more than 500,000 buildings, the Federal Government can lead-the Nation
in energy efficient building design, construction, and operation. As a major
consumer that spends $200 billion annually on products and services, the
Federal Government can promote energy efficiency, water conservation, and the
use of renewable energy products, and help foster markets for emerging
technologies.
Executive Order 13123 establishes goals for greenhouse gases reduction, energy
efficiency improvement, industrial and laboratory facilities, renewable energy,
petroleum, source energy, and water conservation. To achieve these goals, the
executive order addresses sustainable development, the development of sustainable
development principles, and states that agencies shall apply such principles to the
siting, design, and construction of new facilities.
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND STUDY OBJECTIVE
The process for acquiring federal facilities is guided by a variety of laws,
executive orders, policies, and regulations. This guidance is generally intended to provide
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2
Sustainable Federal Facilities
for an open' competitive process, to achieve best value or lowest cost, and to meet a
variety of social and economic objectives. Because this guidance has been developed
from a number of sources to meet a wide range of goals, conflicts among competing
objectives can arise during the acquisition process, leading to tradeoffs that can
compromise the design and consequently the energy and environmental performance of
federal facilities.
In the late 1990s, several of the sponsor agencies of the Federal Facilities Council
began developing and implementing initiatives and policies related to sustainable
development. Guidance related to life-cycle costing and value engineering was
recognized as being supportive of sustainable development, in particular when used in the
conceptual planning and design phases of acquisition, where decisions are made that
substantially effect the ultimate performance of a building over its life cycle. However,
specific concerns were raised that when federal agencies apply value engineering in the
final stages of design or during construction in response to cost overruns, design features
that support sustainable development may be eliminated.
The primary objective of this study, therefore, was to develop a framework to
show how federal agencies can use value engineering and life-cycle costing to support
sustainable development for federal facilities and meet the objectives of Executive Order
13123.
FRAMEWORK FOR ACQUIRING SUSTAINABLE FACILITIES
Format
The framework contained in Chapter 3 represents a process that will ideally be
used by federal agencies; none of the FFC sponsors currently uses such a process. The
framework is organized by general facility acquisition phases and shown in Figure ES-1.
Requirements Conceptual Programming/
~ __ To ~~
Design
Construction
t
Value ~ | Value
engineering J ~ engineering
FIGURE ES-1 Framework format.
r Start-up
Decisions that need to be made in each phase are highlighted. To facilitate
decision making, sustainable development considerations are posed as questions, moving
from macro-level considerations, such as the relationship of the proposed facility to
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Executive Summary
3
agency mission, to more detailed considerations, such as the choice of building materials
and systems to on-site construction methods.
Sustainable development considerations are further organized by the principles
formulated to implement Executive Order 13123 related to siting, energy, materials,
water, indoor environmental quality, and operation and maintenance practices. Examples
of practical actions and strategies that can be employed to support the principles are
highlighted.
To support sustainable development, value engineering and life cycle cost
analyses to evaluate a range of sustainable development options are used in the
conceptual planning, design and construction phases of acquisition. Using value
engineering and life-cycle costing in the conceptual planning phase is not standard
federal practice. However, it is during conceptual planning and design that the decisions
having the greatest impact on cost and on the ultimate sustainability of a facility are
made, including decisions affecting operations, maintenance, and disposal. If there are
tradeoffs to be made, it is clear that the earlier in the process that value engineering is
employed, the greater the potential benefits for sustainable development and cost savings.
Documenting Objectives, Decisions, ant! Assumptions
Because the federal acquisition process can take three to five years or longer,
changes in leadership, in-house staff, and consultant staff are likely. Because team
members will change, it is important those agency objectives, decisions, and assumptions
for sustainable development be clearly and completely documented during each
acquisition phase. Key aspects to be documented include the project philosophy (i.e.,
what is to be achieved by acquiring a facility), sustainable development objectives,
design goals, choice of materials, technologies, and systems. The purpose of the
documentation is to create an institutional record. The cumulative record of decisions
relating to a project can be reviewed at each subsequent decision point or to help
integrate new team members into the process.
Integrated Project Team Approach
Using an integrated project team approach from conceptual planning through
start-up is essential to implement this framework effectively. The team should include the
primary stakeholders (the facility owner, users, and operators) architects, engineers,
planners, value engineers, environmental designers/engineers, interior designers,
contracting officers, constructors, and facility managers responsible for operating and
maintaining the facility. Using an integrated project team approach will better enable the
primary stakeholders to establish objectives for sustainability, functionality and
performance and make informed decisions about tradeoffs among resources, materials,
mission objectives, and building performance for the short and long term. An integrated
project team approach will also help to ensure that contract documents are written to
support design, construction, and performance objectives and facilitate a better
understanding of how the materials and systems being considered in the conceptual
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4
Sustainable Federal Facilities
planning and design phases will affect first costs and life-cycle costs, operations and
maintenance practices, and the ultimate performance of a facility over its lifetime.
Performance Measures
Executive Order 13123 establishes goals for energy efficiency and sustainable
facilities. At the beginning ofthe acquisition process, when agencies are setting goals and
objectives for a facility's performance, it is important to establish measures and methods
for determining how well those goals and objectives are being met. Establishing
quantifiable and qualitative objectives and measures at the beginning of the acquisition
process and measuring performance after occupancy is a key component of acquiring
sustainable facilities.
ISSUES
During the course of this study, several issues related to implementation of
sustainable development practices were identified. The issues relate to
.
a fundamental conflict between federal acquisition policies that require life-cycle
costing and the federal budget process that emphasizes the first costs of facilities.
the need to review master specifications and guide books to determine where
modifications are needed to support sustainable development.
setting performance standards against which sustainable facilities will be
measured.
· identifying environmentally preferable products.
establishing lessons-learned programs.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Because sustainable development is a relatively new approach in the acquisition
of federal facilities, and to share information, the task group presents in Chapter 5 a list of
Web-based tools and resources related to sustainable development, and value
· ~
engineering.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
value engineering
