Best Policy Practices

Best Policy Practices
Leading by Example:
Voluntary Agreement Elevated to Presidential Mandate (EO 13423), United States
Every government can and should decide
how it builds, uses, maintains and renovates its
own buildings. If governments don’t set
an example, who will?
As the owner of approximately 445,000 buildings and lessee
of an additional 57,000 buildings—the largest real estate portfolio
in the world—the US Federal government recognizes that
its facilities have tremendous impact on the natural environment,
the economy, and the thousands of people that work
in, live in, and visit these buildings every day. Stepping up to
this responsibility, the US Federal government is rethinking
how it builds today to secure and enhance the future. High
performance and sustainable building involves maximizing
environmental and human health benefits throughout entire
life-cycle of a building – from siting through design, specification,
construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and
eventual removal.
On January 24-25, 2006, more than 150 Federal facility
managers and decision makers came together at the first-ever
“White House Summit on Federal Sustainable Buildings” to
witness the signing of the “Federal Leadership in High Performance
and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU).” The MOU is the flagship Federal effort to
define guiding principles of green building and provide leadership
in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance
of high performance and sustainable buildings.
These 19 Federal agencies, controlling more than 90
percent of the total Federal facility square footage, joined
to minimize the environmental footprint of their buildings by
adopting the MOU’s Guiding Principles, which include:
• Employing integrated design;
• Optimizing energy performance;
• Protecting and conserving water;
• Enhancing indoor environmental quality; and
• Reducing the environmental impact of materials.
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