WASHINGTON — As Congress looks toward measures to reduce energy use in federal buildings, the leadership of the High Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition has issued recommendations that would allow the widespread development of high-performance federal buildings. The report, Producing High-Performance Federal Buildings, is being issued to other High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus members, as well as other relevant Congressional offices.

“These recommendations, if implemented through upcoming energy legislation, will provide an effective transition to reduced energy consumption, enhanced sustainability, improved building operation and maintenance, and more efficient use of national resources in the federal building stock,” said Doug Read, program director of government affairs for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and chair of the coalition.

The recommendations include:

• Requiring true life-cycle analysis and decision-making for the acquisition of federal buildings;

• Requiring total building commissioning for the federal building stock;

• Requiring integrated project delivery, including whole-building design, procurement, and construction for federal buildings;

• Requiring building information modeling and support building data interoperability for federal buildings;

• Requiring comprehensive education and training and higher levels of competence in the federal building design, property management, operations and maintenance, and procurement communities; and

• Requiring the collection, storage, dissemination, and utilization for federal building performance data.

For more information, visit www.hpbccc.org.

Publication date: 06/08/2009