ENERGY-EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
AND GREEN BUILDING
CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS
USED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND MAJOR RENOVATIONS
Committee to Evaluate Energy-Efficiency and Sustainability Standards
Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Repair
Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report was primarily supported by Sponsor Award No. XW001-XW994 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Defense. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COMMITTEE TO EVALUATE ENERGY-EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS USED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR
MICHAEL R. JOHNSON, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Chair
PAUL FISETTE, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
CHRIS HENDRICKSON, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ROSALIE RUEGG, TIA Consulting, Inc., Emerald Isle, North Carolina
MAXINE L. SAVITZ, Honeywell, Inc. (retired), Los Angeles, California
THOMAS P. SEAGER, Arizona State University, Tempe
ADRIAN TULUCA, Viridian Energy and Environmental, Norwalk, Connecticut
Staff
LYNDA STANLEY, Study Director, Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE)
HEATHER LOZOWSKI, Financial Associate, BICE
TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator, BICE
BOARD ON INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT
DAVID J. NASH, MELE Associates Inc., Vienna, Virginia, Chair
ADJO A. AMEKUDZI, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
ALFREDO H.-S. ANG, University of California, Irvine
JAMES BAGIAN, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
HILLARY BROWN, New Civic Works, New York, New York
ROSS COROTIS, University of Colorado, Boulder
ARNOLD FIELDS, U.S. Marines (retired), Arlington, Virginia
JESUS de la GARZA, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg
G. EDWARD GIBSON, Arizona State University, Tempe
PETER MARSHALL, U.S. Navy (retired), Norfolk, Virginia
JAMES B. PORTER, JR., Sustainable Operations Solutions LLC, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
JAMES RISPOLI, Project Time and Cost, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina
LYNN SCARLETT, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.
JANICE L. TUCHMAN, Engineering News Record, New York, New York
JAMES P. WHITTAKER, Facility Engineering Associates, Fairfax, Virginia
Staff
DENNIS CHAMOT, Interim Director
LYNDA STANLEY, Senior Program Officer
HEATHER LOZOWSKI, Financial Associate
TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator
ANN LARROW, Program Associate
Preface
The federal government operates a portfolio of almost one million facilities (429,000 buildings and 482,000 other structures) whose core purposes are to support the conduct of public policy, to help defend the national interest, and to provide services to the American public. How well federal facilities perform in terms of resource use (energy, water, materials, fossil fuels) and indoor environmental quality, and how much they cost to build, operate, and maintain, can support or hinder the ability of federal agencies to achieve their missions on a routine basis and during disasters. Federal facilities’ performance and cost also have effects on the environment, the health and safety of building occupants, and on taxpayers. For these reasons, Congress has enacted laws and several presidential administrations have issued executive orders to improve the overall performance of federal facilities and to reduce the costs of operating them. Those mandates set performance objectives for high-performance federal buildings, also referred to as green buildings.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the military services—the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps—and other DOD components together represent the largest single owner of facilities among all federal agencies. DOD components own and operate more than one-half million facilities (297,000 buildings and 211,000 additional structures) in the United States and abroad to support national defense-related activities.
To help meet congressional and executive mandates regarding high-performance federal facilities, DOD and the military services have been using building standards and green building certification systems to design and evaluate the performance of their buildings for more than a decade. Over time, DOD has modified its internal policies regarding the use of standards as knowledge about and experience with the design and operation of high-performance buildings has increased in both the public and private sectors.
Because DOD has invested and continues to invest billions of dollars in its facilities, the congressional defense committees want to ensure that DOD facilities are being operated efficiently in terms of cost and resource use. Section 2830 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the congressional defense committees with a cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and long-term payback of specific energy-efficiency and
sustainability standards used by DOD for military construction and renovation. The standards to be evaluated are American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 189.1-2011 for High-Performance Green Buildings, ASHRAE Energy Standard 90.1-2010, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system, and other American National Standards Institute-accredited standards, which include a version of the Green Globes green building certification system. DOD’s report to the congressional defense committees must also include a copy of DOD’s policy prescribing a comprehensive strategy for the pursuit of design and building standards across the department that include specific energy-efficiency standards and sustainable design attributes for military construction.
To provide independent, objective advice in developing DOD’s response to Congress, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment asked the National Research Council to establish an ad hoc committee of experts to complete three related tasks:
- Conduct a literature review that synthesizes the state-of-the-knowledge about the costs and benefits, return on investment, and long-term payback of specified design standards related to sustainable buildings;
- Evaluate a consultant-generated methodology and analysis of the cost-benefit, return on investment, and long-term payback for specified building design standards and evaluate the consultant’s application of the methodology using empirical data from DOD buildings;
- Identify potential factors and approaches that the DOD should consider in developing a comprehensive strategy for its entire portfolio of facilities that includes standards for energy-efficiency and sustainable design.
The Committee on Energy-Efficiency and Sustainability Standards Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Repair included seven experts from government, industry, and academia. The committee held its first meeting at the end of June 2012 and was charged to complete its three related tasks within 6 months. The committee’s report on those tasks is organized as follows:
- Chapter 1 sets the context for the congressional request, provides information on federal laws and mandates, identifies the committee’s statement of task and related issues, and describes the committee’s approach to that task.
- Chapter 2 describes factors related to the DOD operating environment that are relevant to the task, describes ASHRAE Standards 90.1-2010 and 189.1-2011 and the LEED and Green Globes green building certification systems, and identifies similarities and differences between the two systems.
- Chapter 3 provides background information on selected economic performance methods and measures, issues related to performance measurement of buildings, provides the committee’s evaluation of the DOD consultant’s report, and identifies issues related to the potential application of the consultant’s analytical approach in the DOD operating environment.
- Chapter 4 summarizes the literature review conducted by the committee and the committee’s conclusions.
- Chapter 5 presents the committee’s findings from the literature search and its evaluation of the DOD consultant’s report. Based on those findings and the committee members’ expertise and experience, the committee identified five recommended approaches for DOD’s consideration as it develops its comprehensive strategy and its response to Congress.
I personally consider it an honor and privilege to have served and worked with the other members of the committee, each a recognized expert in his or her field and each of whom volunteered their time and knowledge as a public service. As a team we appreciate the unwavering support and timely assistance of the NRC staff.
DOD has been a leader in adopting and adapting energy-efficiency and sustainability criteria and standards for buildings for more than 15 years. Given the relatively narrow scope of its tasks and the 6-month time frame, the committee could not highlight all of the programs and initiatives for improving the performance of facilities that are underway within DOD and the military services. The committee is aware, however, that those initiatives include comprehensive efforts to reduce the energy use of DOD installations, the development and testing of new building-related technologies, and the evaluation of the performance of its facilities, among many others. Nonetheless, in this report the committee has identified additional opportunities for DOD to lead the way in improving the performance of its buildings based on measured results of the actual outcomes of high-performance buildings. Through collaboration with other federal agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and the private sector, DOD can also take a leadership role in improving the knowledge and practices required to improve the performance of buildings throughout the United States. Through those and other efforts, DOD has a unique opportunity to lower the total cost of ownership of its facilities over the long term, to reduce environmental impacts, to improve the quality of life for the military and their families, and to benefit the entire nation.
Michael R. Johnson, Chair
Committee on Energy-Efficiency and Sustainability Standards
Used by the Department of Defense for Military Construction and Repair
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Stephen Berry, University of Chicago,
Bill Browning, Terrapin/Bright Green, LLC,
Marco Castaldi, City College of New York,
Ronald Filadelfo, CNA,
David Hungerford, California Energy Commission,
Peter Morris, Davis Langdon US,
Annie Pearce, Virginia Polytechnic and State University,
Bob Tatum, Stanford University,
John Walewski, Texas A&M University,
Alan Washburn, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and
Richard Wright, National Institute of Standards and Technology (retired).
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Elizabeth M. Drake, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (retired). Appointed by the National Research Council, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Contents
Building Standards and Green Building Certification Systems
Impetus for This Study and the Statement of Task
2 THE DOD OPERATING ENVIRONMENT, BUILDING STANDARDS, AND GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS
Green Building Certification Systems
Similarities and Differences Between the LEED and Green Globes Green Building Certification Systems
3 THE COMMITTEE’S EVALUATION OF THE DOD CONSULTANT’S REPORT
Definition and Use of Selected Economic Performance Methods and Measures
Issues Related to the Measurement of Building Performance
Description of the DOD Consultant’s Analytical Approach
Committee’s Evaluation of the DOD Consultant’s Analytical Approach
Overview of Findings from the Studies Analyzed
Operations and Maintenance Costs
Indoor Environmental Quality and Worker Productivity
Incremental Costs to Design and Construct High-Performance Buildings
5 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDED APPROACHES FOR DOD’S CONSIDERATION
Recommended Approaches for DOD’s Consideration
A Biosketches of Committee Members
B Committee Meetings, Briefings, and Public Comment
E Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High-Performance and Sustainable Buildings