42 USC § 17092 - High-performance green Federal buildings

# § 17092. High-performance green Federal buildings

**(a)** **Establishment of Office** Not later than 60 days after December 19, 2007, the Administrator shall establish within the General Services Administration an Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, and appoint an individual to serve as Federal Director in, a position in the career-reserved Senior Executive service, to—

**(1)** establish and manage the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings; and

**(2)** carry out other duties as required under this part.

**(b)** **Compensation** section 5382 of title 5

The compensation of the Federal Director shall not exceed the maximum rate of basic pay for the Senior Executive Service under , including any applicable locality-based comparability payment that may be authorized under section 5304(h)(2)(C) of that title.

**(c)** **Duties** The Federal Director shall—

**(1)** coordinate the activities of the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings with the activities of the Office of Commercial High-Performance Green Buildings, and the Secretary, in accordance with section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title;

**(2)** ensure full coordination of high-performance green building information and activities within the General Services Administration and all relevant agencies, including, at a minimum—

**(A)** the Environmental Protection Agency;

**(B)** the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive;

**(C)** the Office of Federal Procurement Policy;

**(D)** the Department of Energy;

**(E)** the Department of Health and Human Services;

**(F)** the Department of Defense;

**(G)** the Department of Transportation;

**(H)** the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and

**(I)** the Office of Science and Technology Policy;

**1** establish a senior-level Federal Green Building Advisory Committee under section 474,[^1] which shall provide advice and recommendations in accordance with that section and subsection (d);

See References in Text note below.

**(4)** identify and every 5 years reassess improved or higher rating standards recommended by the Advisory Committee;

**(5)** ensure full coordination, dissemination of information regarding, and promotion of the results of research and development information relating to Federal high-performance green building initiatives;

**(6)** identify and develop Federal high-performance green building standards for all types of Federal facilities, consistent with the requirements of this part and section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title;

**(7)** establish green practices that can be used throughout the life of a Federal facility;

**(8)** review and analyze current Federal budget practices and life-cycle costing issues, and make recommendations to Congress, in accordance with subsection (d); and

**(9)** identify opportunities to demonstrate innovative and emerging green building technologies and concepts.

**(d)** **Additional duties** The Federal Director, in consultation with the Commercial Director and the Advisory Committee, and consistent with the requirements of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title shall—

**(1)** identify, review, and analyze current budget and contracting practices that affect achievement of high-performance green buildings, including the identification of barriers to high-performance green building life-cycle costing and budgetary issues;

**(2)** develop guidance and conduct training sessions with budget specialists and contracting personnel from Federal agencies and budget examiners to apply life-cycle cost criteria to actual projects;

**(3)** identify tools to aid life-cycle cost decisionmaking; and

**(4)** explore the feasibility of incorporating the benefits of high-performance green buildings, such as security benefits, into a cost-budget analysis to aid in life-cycle costing for budget and decisionmaking processes.

**(e)** **Incentives** Within 90 days after December 19, 2007, the Federal Director shall identify incentives to encourage the expedited use of high-performance green buildings and related technology in the operations of the Federal Government, in accordance with the requirements of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title, including through—

**(1)** the provision of recognition awards; and

**(2)** the maximum feasible retention of financial savings in the annual budgets of Federal agencies for use in reinvesting in future high-performance green building initiatives.

**(f)** **Report** Not later than 2 years after December 19, 2007, and biennially thereafter, the Federal Director, in consultation with the Secretary, shall submit to Congress a report that—

**(1)** describes the status of compliance with this part, the requirements of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title, and other Federal high-performance green building initiatives in effect as of the date of the report, including—

**(A)** the extent to which the programs are being carried out in accordance with this part and the requirements of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title; and

**(B)** the status of funding requests and appropriations for those programs;

**(2)** identifies within the planning, budgeting, and construction process all types of Federal facility procedures that may affect the certification of new and existing Federal facilities as high-performance green buildings under the provisions of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title and the criteria established in subsection (h);

**(3)** identifies inconsistencies, as reported to the Advisory Committee, in Federal law with respect to product acquisition guidelines and high-performance product guidelines;

**(4)** recommends language for uniform standards for use by Federal agencies in environmentally responsible acquisition;

**(5)** in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, reviews the budget process for capital programs with respect to alternatives for—

**(A)** restructuring of budgets to require the use of complete energy and environmental cost accounting;

**(B)** using operations expenditures in budget-related decisions while simultaneously incorporating productivity and health measures (as those measures can be quantified by the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, with the assistance of universities and national laboratories);

**(C)** streamlining measures for permitting Federal agencies to retain all identified savings accrued as a result of the use of life-cycle costing for future high-performance green building initiatives; and

**(D)** identifying short-term and long-term cost savings that accrue from high-performance green buildings, including those relating to health and productivity;

**(6)** identifies green, self-sustaining technologies to address the operational needs of Federal facilities in times of national security emergencies, natural disasters, or other dire emergencies;

**(7)** summarizes and highlights development, at the State and local level, of high-performance green building initiatives, including executive orders, policies, or laws adopted promoting high-performance green building (including the status of implementation of those initiatives); and

**(8)** includes, for the 2-year period covered by the report, recommendations to address each of the matters, and a plan for implementation of each recommendation, described in paragraphs (1) through (7).

**(g)** **Implementation** The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings shall carry out each plan for implementation of recommendations under subsection (f)(8).

**(h)** **Identification of certification system**

**(1)** **In general** December 19, 2007section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title

For the purpose of this section, not later than 60 days after , the Federal Director shall identify and shall provide to the Secretary pursuant to , a certification system that the Director determines to be the most likely to encourage a comprehensive and environmentally-sound approach to certification of green buildings.

**(2)** **Basis** The system identified under paragraph (1) shall be based on—

**(A)** a study completed every 5 years and provided to the Secretary pursuant to section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title, which shall be carried out by the Federal Director to compare and evaluate standards;

**(B)** the ability and availability of assessors and auditors to independently verify the criteria and measurement of metrics at the scale necessary to implement this part;

**(C)** the ability of the applicable standard-setting organization to collect and reflect public comment;

**(D)** the ability of the standard to be developed and revised through a consensus-based process;

**(E)** an evaluation of the robustness of the criteria for a high-performance green building, which shall give credit for promoting—

**(i)** efficient and sustainable use of water, energy, and other natural resources;

**(ii)** use of renewable energy sources;

**(iii)** improved indoor environmental quality through enhanced indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, day lighting, pollutant source control, and use of low-emission materials and building system controls;

**(iv)** reduced impacts from transportation through building location and site design that promote access by public transportation; and

**(v)** such other criteria as the Federal Director determines to be appropriate; and

**(F)** national recognition within the building industry.

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**Source Credit**: (Pub. L. 110–140, title IV, § 436, Dec. 19, 2007, 121 Stat. 1616.)

## Editorial Notes

### References in Text

This part, referred to in subsecs. (a)(2), (c)(6), (f)(1), and (h)(2)(B), was in the original “this subtitle”, meaning subtitle C (§§ 431–441) of title IV of , , , which enacted this part, amended sections 6832, 6834, 8253, and 8254 of this title, and enacted provisions set out as a note under . For complete classification of subtitle C to the Code, see Tables.

Section 474, referred to in subsec. (c)(3), probably means , which is classified to .

## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on the date that is 1 day after , see , set out as a note under , The Congress.

## Executive Documents

### Change of Name

Office of the Federal Environmental Executive reestablished as the Office of the Chief Sustainability Officer by Ex. Ord. No. 13693, § 6, , 80 F.R. 15877, formerly set out in a note under .