Green Building Stimulus Synonymous with LEED

Following on the heels of Congress’ Energy Independence and Security Act, which was signed into law in December 2007, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, aka the stimulus bill, has allocated approximately $5.5 billion to the U.S. General Services Administration (“GSA”) for green building projects and another $300 million to invest in fuel-efficient vehicles.

This is excellent news for the sustainable/green-building industry as the GSA has a standing environmental policy which is to eliminate all damage to the environment resulting from its operations. Furthermore, the GSA’s goal is to achieve this while providing superior workplaces for a million federal employees across the United States. Through its Sustainable Design and Energy programs, the GSA is committed to incorporating principles of sustainable design and energy efficiency into all of its building projects.
The 2007 Act called for energy efficiency and the availability of renewable energy in federal buildings, indeed, the GSA requires that all GSA new construction projects and substantial renovations must be certified through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Projects are encouraged to exceed basic LEED green building certification, by achieving LEED Silver Certification. LEED consists of a set of prerequisites and credits with specific requirements for obtaining points in order to become a certified green building.

For green building educators and sustainability consultants, contractors and green building materials providers, the stimulus package represents an enormous opportunity to ramp up business. Specifically, the stimulus calls for $4.5 billion to convert federal buildings to high-performance green buildings, $750 million to renovate and construct federal buildings and courthouses and $300 million to renovate and construct land ports of entry.