Guidance for Sustainable Design
Executive Order (E.O.) 13423 requires Federal agencies to develop and submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE) a plan to implement sustainable design, construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements. This page includes policy and technical guidance to assist agencies with meeting these requirements.
- Policy Guidance
- Implementation Plans
- Federal Sustainable Building Assessment Tools
- Technical Guidance for the Sustainability Memorandum of Understanding
Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
Policy Guidance
The ISWG offers the following policy guidance:
High-Performance and Sustainable Buildings Guidance
The latest guidance on high-performance Federal buildings was issued December 5, 2008. It includes:
- Revised Guiding Principles for new construction
- New Guiding Principles for existing buildings
- Clarification of reporting guidelines for entering information on the sustainability data element (#25) in the Federal Real Property Profile
- An explanation of how to calculate the percentage of buildings and square footage that are compliant with the Guiding Principles for agencies' scorecard input
The Whole Building Design Guide will be updated periodically to reflect any changes in policy and technical guidance.
A set of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on this guidance is also available. These FAQs are based on comments received during the development of this guidance, and will be updated as necessary.
- High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Guidance (PDF 192 KB)
- High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Guidance - Comment Resolution Summary (PDF 98 KB)
Sustainable Buildings Implementation Plan Guidance
The Sustainable Buildings Implementation Plan Guidance provides explicit guidance to agencies creating implementation plans (PDF 133 KB).
Implementation Plans
Below are implementation plans from ISWG members available to fellow members as a reference. If you wish to add your agency plan to this list, please contact Jesse Feinberg.
- Department of Health and Human Services' Sustainable Buildings Implementation Plan (PDF 992 KB)
- Department of Interior's Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Implementation Plan (PDF 1.9 MB)
Federal Sustainable Building Assessment Tools
To meet the sustainability requirements under E.O. 13423, most agencies need to address their existing building stock and not just focus on new construction. Numerous agencies have begun this process by developing sustainability assessment tools to better understand where their existing buildings stand in regard to the Guiding Principles. If you wish to add your agency's tool, please contact Perry Luksin.
High Performance Sustainable Buildings Compliance Summary Checklist
DOE created a high-performance sustainable buildings assessment and compliance tool to implement and document compliance with the Guiding Principles for both new construction and existing buildings.
The new construction checklist within the tool is designed to match the Guiding Principles and corresponding Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) points. Assessment compliance forms for existing buildings (integrated design, commissioning, energy efficiency, etc.) are included that explain the documentation requirements for each Guiding Principle.
- Download the tool (Excel 1 MB)
Consolidated Sustainable Facility Checklist
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a consolidated sustainable facility checklist for use at its facilities. This checklist is currently being updated.
- Download the checklist (MS Word 332 KB)
Existing Building Evaluation and Prioritization Matrix
Heath and Human Services (HHS) has developed the HHS Existing Building Evaluation and Prioritization Matrix for use in collecting and measuring how well an existing building meets requirements of the Guiding Principles, as well as E.O. 13423 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). It also includes two additional measures: Economics and Conformance with Local Environmental Compliance.
- Download the tool and instructions (PDF 332 KB)
Technical Guidance for the Sustainability Memorandum of Understanding
ISWG established the Technical Guidance Task Group to develop technical guidance under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings. As stated in the MOU:
"Agencies will strive to incorporate and adopt, as appropriate and practical, the attached Guiding Principles into existing agency policy and guidance within 180 days of signature. To assist with this effort, the Interagency Sustainability Working Group (ISWG) will provide technical guidance and updates for the Guiding Principles."
In 2006, the Technical Guidance Task Group conducted a series of meetings to produce guidance document on the Sustainable MOU section of the Whole Building Design Guide. In May 2007, the ISWG reconvened the ISWG MOU Technical Guidance Task Group (TG2) to update the technical guidance document based on recent developments in sustainable building design practices and E.O. 13423. Members of the ISWG are requested to review and provide comments to Alison Kinn.