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What Is Green Building?

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What Is Green Building? Green Building Overview and Issues March 12, 2021 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R46719 SUMMARY R46719 Green Building Overview and Issues March 12, 2021 Buildings, whether residential, commercial, government, or special-use, are core components of the nation’s infrastructure. Their construction, operation, and demolition Corrie E. Clark are increasingly recognized as major sources of environmental impact. Without Analyst in Energy Policy significant transformation of building construction and operations, that impact is expected to increase with population growth and changes in other demographic and economic factors. One strategy for achieving that transformation is most widely known by the term green building. In general, green building can be characterized as integrated building practices that significantly reduce the environmental footprint of a building in comparison to standard practices. Descriptions of green building generally focus on a number of common elements, especially siting, energy, water, materials, waste, and health. Serviceability or utility is also an explicit design element for a class of green buildings known as high- performance buildings. One of the most salient features of green building is integration of the various elements. Although individual elements can be addressed separately, the green building approach is more comprehensive, focusing on the environmental footprint of a building over its life cycle, from initial design and construction to operations during the building’s useful life, through eventual demolition and its aftermath. The desire to integrate the various elements of green building has led to the development of rating and certification systems to assess how well a building project meets a specified set of green criteria. The best-known system is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, it focuses on site, water, energy, materials, and indoor environment. Recently, green building practices have found their way into model building codes and standards. These model codes and standards are then adapted and incorporated into enforceable municipal and state building codes. The federal government has no enforcement responsibilities of building codes, but does play a role in the development, adoption, and compliance of codes by state and local governments. Green building has received substantial attention from government, industry, and public interest groups. Several federal laws and executive orders have provisions relating to green building. Among these are the energy policy acts (EPACTs) of 1992 and 2005 (P.L. 102-486 and P.L. 109-58), the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA, P.L. 110-140), the Energy Act of 2020 (Division Z of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, P.L. 116-260), Executive Order (E.O.) 13834, E.O. 13990, and E.O. 14008. EISA and other policy instruments require all federal agencies to implement green building practices. However, several agencies have programs and activities that have a focus that goes beyond reducing the environmental impacts of the facilities used by that agency—for example, by performing research or facilitating the green-building activities of nonfederal entities. Among those agencies are the General Services Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Federal Sustainability, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development. Green building raises issues relating to performance, cost, market penetration, and the approach itself. Among the questions Congress may face with respect to such issues are the following: How well are current green building programs working? How effective are current methods for coordinating the green building activities of different agencies? To what extent and by what means should Congress extend its efforts to facilitate and support the adoption and effective implementation of green building measures? What priorities should Congress give to the different elements of green building? What actions should Congress do to facilitate the growth of the scientific and technical knowledge base relating to green building? Congressional Research Service Green Building Overview and Issues Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 What Is Green Building? .................................................................................................. 2 Elements of Green Building.............................................................................................. 5 Energy ..................................................................................................................... 6 Water ....................................................................................................................... 8 Materials .................................................................................................................. 8 Waste....................................................................................................................... 9 Health.................................................................................................................... 10 Siting..................................................................................................................... 11 Serviceability .......................................................................................................... 12 Integration .............................................................................................................. 13 Balance Among Elements .................................................................................... 13 Balance Across Stages......................................................................................... 13 Green Certifications and Standards .................................................................................. 14 Green Rating Systems and Certifications..................................................................... 14 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ........................................ 15 Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) .................................................................................................... 16 Green Globes..................................................................................................... 16 Living Building Challenge ................................................................................... 17 Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) BEST .................................... 17 Element-Focused Programs.................................................................................. 17 Federal Government Use of Certification Systems ........................................................ 19 Green Building Codes and Standards .......................................................................... 20 Legislative and Policy Framework ................................................................................... 24 Green Building Requirements.................................................................................... 25 Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance Sustainable Buildings........................................................................................................ 26 Renewable Energy Goal ........................................................................................... 27 Energy Efficiency Provisions..................................................................................... 28 Programs and Activities of Selected Federal Agencies ........................................................ 29 Select Green Building-Related Programs at Federal Agencies......................................... 30 Assessing Green Building Efforts .................................................................................... 32 Market Penetration .................................................................................................. 32 Cost....................................................................................................................... 33 Performance ........................................................................................................... 36 Factors Affecting Performance ............................................................................. 36 Selected Studies for Energy ................................................................................. 38 Selected Studies: Health Performance.................................................................... 40 Measurement .......................................................................................................... 41 Progress Toward Federal Goals.................................................................................. 43 Issues for Congress ....................................................................................................... 45 Federal Green Buildings: Oversight and Legislation...................................................... 45 Adoption and Implementation of Green Building.......................................................... 46 Financial Incentives ............................................................................................ 46 Congressional Research Service Green Building Overview and
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