Federal Buildings Having Trouble Meeting 'Green' Guidelines

Federal agencies are having a tough time trying to make their buildings “green” in order to meet new guidelines.

The Office of Management and Budget released a fiscal scorecard on Friday, and the Federal Times reported the OMB scorecard found “only six out of 24 agencies are on track to make 15 percent of their buildings ‘green’ by 2015.” In order to meet the “green” guidelines, “newly constructed buildings must use 30 percent less energy than a typical building of the same size and renovated buildings must use 20 percent less energy.”

According to the report, only “0.03 percent of Defense Department buildings meet the guidelines” at the current time. 

If and when the buildings meet the “green” guidelines, there may be yet another benchmark the agencies will have to meet. 

By 2015, agencies must “reduce energy use in their facilities by 30 percent from a 2003 baseline by 2015” because of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.