Best Policy Practices

Best Policy Practices
Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers
United States
Specs have to go “green” as well,
how else could the final product be
environmentally any better?
To address the need for a comprehensive guide for procuring
green building products and construction services within the
Federal government, the US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) partnered with the Federal Environmental Executive
and the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) to provide
model green construction specification language to be used
to supplement full project specifications and to ‘green’ guide
specifications. Organized according to the Construction
Specifications Institute’s MasterFormat, the 60+ section
Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers provides users
with multiple, performance-based options, allowing for flexibility
in application. Specifically, the Guide is helping federal
agencies meet their project-specific environmental goals and
mandates including:
• Executive Order 13423 www.whitehouse.gov/news/
releases/2007/01/20070124-2.html
• Energy Policy Act of 2005
www.energy.gov/about/EPAct.htm
• EPA’s Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable
Purchasing www.epa.gov/oppt/epp/
• EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for
recovered content www.epa.gov/cpg/
• USDA’s Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement
Program www.biobased.oce.usda.gov/fb4p/
• ENERGY STAR www.energystar.gov and DOE Federal
Energy Management Program (FEMP) Product Efficiency
Recommendations www.eere.energy.gov/femp/
procurement/index.html
• ASTM, LEED, Green Globes, and other rating systems
and standards
• And other ‘best practices’ as determined via industry
and public comment
Find the Guide at http://fedgreenspec.wbdg.org.
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