EPA Green Buildings

In This Section

Designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining buildings involves large amounts of energy, water, and other resources and creates significant amounts of waste. The building process also impacts the environment and ecosystem surrounding the building site. Even after buildings are constructed, occupants and building managers face a host of challenges as they try to maintain a healthy, efficient, and productive work environment. EPA addresses these challenges by promoting energy and resource efficiency, waste reduction and pollution prevention practices, indoor environmental quality standards, and other environmental initiatives for both new construction and existing buildings.

Typical green buildings often incorporate the following features:

Careful site selection to minimize impacts on the surrounding environment and increase alternative transportation options.
Energy conservation and use of renewable energy to ensure efficient use of natural resources and reduced utility bills.
Use of daylighting and individual occupant-controlled lighting to reduce energy and improve indoor lighting for occupants.
Water conservation to ensure maximum efficiency and reduced utility bills.
Responsible stormwater management and native landscaping to limit disruption of natural watershed functions and reduce the environmental impacts of stormwater runoff.
Material reduction, recycling, composting, and use of "green" building materials.
Improved indoor environmental quality during construction and operation phases through the use of low volatile organic compound products and careful ventilation practices during construction and renovation.
Reduced urban heat island effect to avoid altering the surrounding air temperatures relative to nearby rural and natural areas.
In the United States, buildings account for:
- 36 percent of total energy use and 65 percent of electricity consumption
- 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
- 30 percent of raw materials use
- 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually)
- 12 percent of potable water consumption
Source: U.S. Green Building Council

Learn more about EPA's Green Buildings in the sections below:

EPA's Green Buildings
More on Green Buildings

EPA's Green Buildings

Best Practices

EPA's Best Practice Lease Provisions are available for use in new lease solicitations. The provisions include sustainable building requirements and other building best practices that EPA aims to pursue in its leased buildings. Learn more about the Best Practice (Environmental) Lease Provisions and download a copy.

GreenCheck

EPA created a form known as "GreenCheck" as a framework for “greening” its real estate projects and streamlining and tracking its facilities’ compliance with federal requirements. GreenCheck consolidates various federal requirements into a user-friendly checklist to be evaluated at the inception of a project. Learn more about GreenCheck and download the GreenCheck form.

EPA leases most of its major office buildings. The Agency works to improve the environmental performance of its leased buildings—often build-to-suit projects—through green lease specifications and riders. These amendments to traditional lease language emphasize energy, water, and resource conservation and include procedures to ensure the long-term environmental performance of a property.

To further carry out its green building mission, EPA uses the LEED^® certification for new construction (NC), a green building rating system, as one tool to help set environmental performance standards for new building design and construction and to provide independent verification of design adequacy and proper construction. EPA also employs the ENERGY STAR^® for buildings; energy efficiency requirements that obtain 30 percent better energy performance than ASHRAE 90.1-2004; and WaterSense® labeled products. Additionally, the Agency has adopted its own water conservation measures; resource conservation, recycling, and use of sustainable building materials requirements; and measures to protect indoor air quality. EPA's Green Buildings Vision and Policy Statement serves as a guide for a holistic, systems approach to sustainable building design, renovation, and maintenance.

The following EPA facilities are actively pursuing or have achieved green building certifications:

EPA Facility	Green Building Certification	Certification Date
Arlington, VA - Potomac Yard	- LEED-NC 2.1 Gold - LEED-EB 2.0 Gold - LEED-EB: O&M 2009 Platinum	- June 2006 - July 2008 - December 2011
Boston, MA - Region 1 Office	- LEED-NC 2.2 Gold	June 2010
Chelmsford, MA - New England Regional Laboratory	- LEED-NC 1.0 Gold	February 2003
Cincinnati, OH - Laboratory Annex 2	- LEED-NC 2.1/2.2 Gold	December 2008
Dallas TX - Region 6 Office	- LEED-EB: O&M Silver	January 2012
Denver, CO - Region 8 Office	- LEED-NC 2.1 Gold	September 2007
Fort Meade, MD - Environmental Science Center	- Guiding Principles certification for existing buildings	Pending
Grosse Ile, MI - Large Lakes Research Station	- Guiding Principles certification for existing buildings	November 2012
Guaynabo, PR - Caribbean Environmental Protection Division	- LEED-CI 2009 Gold	October 2012
Gulf Breeze, FL - Gulf Ecology Division Laboratory Building #67	- LEED-NC 2.2 Silver	April 2009
Kansas City, KS - Science and Technology Center	- LEED-NC 2.0 Gold	August 2003
Lacey, WA - Region 10 Washington Operations Office	- LEED-EB 1.0 Silver	February 2005
Lenexa, KS - Region 7 Office	- LEED-NC 2.2 Silver	February 2009
Los Angeles, CA - Southern California Field Office	- LEED-EB 2009 Gold	November 2011
Research Triangle Park, NC - National Computer Center	- LEED-NC 2.0 Silver	January 2005
Research Triangle Park, NC - First Environments Early Learning Center	- LEED-NC 2.1 Silver	February 2008
San Francisco, CA - Region 9 Office	- LEED-EB 2.0 Gold	May 2009
Seattle, WA - Region 10 Office	- LEED-EB 2.0 Platinum	November 2009
Washington, DC - Ariel Rios North-South	- LEED-EB: O&M	Pending

More on Green Buildings

EPA's Green Building website
The Green Building Initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of building practices that result in energy-efficient, healthier, and environmentally sustainable buildings by promoting credible and practical green building approaches for residential and commercial construction. GBI oversees and administers Green Globes™, a green management tool that includes an assessment protocol and a rating system and guide for integrating environmentally friendly design into both new and existing commercial buildings.
The Living Building Challenge is a building certification program offered by the International Living Future Institute™ considered to be one of the most rigorous performance standards for the built environment.
Region 3's Green Building website
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)The USGBC is the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.
Additional green building resources and organizations