The Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation which will require select government vendors, from landlords to defense contractors, to indicate if and where they publicly disclose greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015, the Obama Administration announced a new target to reduce Federal … Continue Reading
I have been hearing rumblings about federal green building policies that are being reduced or axed in Washington D.C. Now I have a real life example to discuss. Kirk Dryer reported on the story last week, but I think its worth discussing further. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it would be relocating its … Continue Reading
I first met Daniel Moring as an aide to D.C. Council Member Mary Cheh when we discussed the D.C. Green Building Act. We recently met up to discuss the General Services Administration’s proposal to require greenhouse gas emissions reporting and I asked him to write a post on the topic. Enjoy and have a great … Continue Reading
The green building industry has been besieged the last few years with stories about buildings not performing as anticipated. It appears the federal government has taken notice, and is pushing reforms to green building certification, based on comments by one high-ranking General Services Administration official: “’One of the things that I tease the USGBC … Continue Reading
It’s an understatement to say environmentalists were disheartened by Senator Reid’s announcement last week that a comprehensive cap-and-trade bill would be tabled for the year. But, fear not, environmentalists – and, be fearful, unprepared federal contractors – because the federal government will be regulating greenhouse gas emissions in other ways. Back in October 2009, … Continue Reading
What Is a "Zero Environmental Footprint"? This is an important question for government contractors because the General Services Administration (GSA) recently proposed that the federal government move to a zero environmental footprint. Unfortunately, I’m not sure anyone has defined this apparently new term. The GSA’s announcement doesn’t define "zero environmental footprint." None of the articles … Continue Reading
Executive Order (EO) 13514 continues to have enormous implications for the green building industry. As you’ll recall, EO 13514 requires that federal agencies comply with a number of green building stipulations, including 95% of all applicable contracts meet sustainability requirements. While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) invested over $25 billion in green building … Continue Reading
While preparing for my presentation "Legal Considerations When Building Green" for the National Research Council, I contemplated what proposals I wanted to make to the federal agency representatives that would be in attendance. The federal government is pushing federal investment in green buildings through $25 billion allocated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and … Continue Reading
A coalition of forest product companies (“the Coalition”) has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding, in part, the United States Green Building Council’s preference for Federal Stewardship Council-certified (FSC) wood products. The Coalition has asked the FTC Bureau of Competition to provide guidance to the USGBC and other rating systems regarding the … Continue Reading
If you have been reading Green Building Law Update for any length of time, you have read about the $4.5 billion that was given to the General Services Administration through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The GSA has announced plans to use the $4.5 billion to create high performance, green government buildings. The … Continue Reading
Something very important popped out at me when I re-read the New York Times article about the green buildings not performing as anticipated. The green building highlighted for poor energy performance is a General Services Administration building: "The building’s cooling system, a major gas guzzler, was one culprit. Another was its design: to get its … Continue Reading
Reminder: Don’t forget to register for Green Building Law Update’s Birthday Happy Hour If you are looking for green building projects resulting directly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, then the General Services Administration is the agency for you. The GSA received $5.5 billion to support its High Performance and Sustainable Buildings program. Previously, … Continue Reading
I have previously speculated that stimulus green building projects will be at risk of underbidding. Now we have real evidence. Remember the $5.5 billion that the General Services Administration received from the stimulus to fund green building construction and retrofits? "Bids came in far lower than we expected, but the upside is that because of … Continue Reading
While the General Services Administration announced stimulus projects last week, they have no time to rest. In fact, choosing the stimulus projects may have been the easiest part of the process. The next step is contract procurement and administration. Due to staffing vacancies at the GSA, the administration process may prove difficult : "Meanwhile, the … Continue Reading
General Services Administration, I am impressed. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act mandated that the GSA determine projects that would receive $5.5 billion by April 3, 2009. The GSA beat this mandate, making its list of projects available on April 2, 2009 (hat tip to the Washington Business Journal for breaking the story ). If … Continue Reading