Senate Efficiency Champions Advance Elements of Recent USGBC Report

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

As members of the House and Senate tax writing committees continue to negotiate over the extension payroll tax cut and other tax incentives, six senators of the Senate Finance Committee, spearheaded by Olympia Snowe (ME) and Jeff Bingaman (NM) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Acting Director Department of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Jeffrey Zients urging them to advance policies to improve energy efficiency and continue to support clean energy incentives.

                                             

Specifically, the letter calls on Treasury and OMB to improve the guidance on the 179D Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction.  

“…as authors of the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Deduction (U.S.C 179D) we support the Administration’s Better Building Initiative to reduce energy consumption in the commercial building sector. Consistent with the President’s announcement on December 1, 2011, we encourage the Administration to issue guidance for partial deduction pathways for the building envelope as well as the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In addition, we strongly support the effort to simplify the 179D tax deduction, especially for existing buildings, and look forward to working with you in this effort.

For the second time in two years, the U.S. Green Building Council has convened a diverse group of 15 businesses and organizations to help develop a series of green building policy recommendations that could be achieved via executive action. The report, Better Buildings through Executive Action, includes a recommendation on updating guidance on the use of Section 179D, the deduction for investment in energy efficient commercial buildings

“To encourage uptake of the partial deduction outside of lighting upgrades, IRS/DOE should issue guidance that avoids expensive performance modeling but rather instructs which particular pieces of high-efficiency heating, cooling, and building envelope materials and equipment should be installed that would meet existing savings targets already announced for those systems.”

We are happy these recommendations are being reviewed by policy makers throughout the federal government and hope that the Department of Treasury acts on this important recommendation since they have firsthand knowledge that green building sits at the nexus of saving people money, saving energy and creating jobs.

For more information on 179D, read our post  "Encouraging Energy Efficiency: A Tax Fix Everyone Can Get Behind"

Obama Budget Charts Bold Course for Green Building Priorities

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

On Monday, President Obama released an ambitious $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2013 that seeks to pump billions of dollars into the economy through clean energy and infrastructure improvements, while seeking to eliminate existing incentives for oil and gas and ending tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.

As part of the Better Buildings Initiative, a 10-year initiative to make non-residential build¬ings 20 percent more energy efficient, the budget aims to re-design the cur¬rent tax deduction for commercial buildings 179D to a credit, and change the eligibility program to cover other taxable entities such as real estate investment trusts (REITS). This budget proposal mirrors a 2012 request made by the Obama Administration, which has yet to get traction on the hill. USGBC has been working with others in the real estate and environmental community to advance solutions to improve the existing 179D so it is encouraging that the Administration continues to show support for improving the deduction.

The budget also includes billions of dollars to modernize at least 35,000 schools across the country, including energy-efficiency upgrades and comprehensive, green retrofits. This proposal was included in the President’s American Jobs Act last year but has yet to be considered by Congress.

The Promise of the Green Economy: Strengthening the Economy While Protecting the Environment

Maggie Comstock
Associate, Policy
U.S. Green Building Council

The author of an article posted yesterday on CNN couldn’t be further embedded in the spin zone he arguably says he’s trying to debunk. In his opening line, the author, Steve Hargreaves, wrote, “The tactic du jour for environmentalists trying to sell a skeptical public on tighter regulations is this: spin the thing as a job creator.”

If you want to substantively get into a discussion on driving job creation, it won’t be long before you’re talking about green jobs. Green building is Exhibit A. In hundreds of communities across the country, green building is strengthening the local economy and creating jobs. Unfortunately, Hargreaves, with his clear predisposition, and others, work tireless to further politicize the established economic benefit of clean energy solutions. Interestingly, these economic opportunities, and green building in particular, are rooted in energy conservation and fiscal responsibility —basically prudent spending of taxpayer dollars to build healthy schools for our children or energy-conserving hospitals that provide a significant return on investment through significant energy and water savings. And from Kentucky to Ohio, Florida to California, we are seeing very diverse political stakeholders advance these opportunities simply because they are smart financial decisions (and wholly apolitical).

For starters, let’s look at a study by the Pew Charitable Trust which reports that the clean energy and green economy sector is the fastest growing job sector, producing twice as many jobs as the sectoral average between 1998 and 2007. A 2009 Booz Allen Hamilton study estimates that by 2013, the green building industry will create 8 million jobs in a range of occupations including construction managers, carpenters, electricians, architects, truck drivers and cost estimators, among many others. Today, McGraw Hill Construction estimates that green construction supports 660,000 jobs, which represents a third of the green design and construction industry. The McGraw Hill Construction study uses a very narrow definition of green jobs which is limited to workers who spend more than 50 percent of their time on green projects or designing and installing green systems, this excludes administrative professionals and manufacturing, production or transportation-related services. This sector only has potential to grow. And this number is only likely to grow with support and investment from both the public and private sectors. A prominent report from McKinsey & Company reveals that energy efficiency improvements in the residential and commercial sectors could create 600,000 to 900,000 stable and on-going jobs. The job creation potential of building energy efficiency could be increased by 114,000 jobs through the President’s Better Buildings Initiative, with the greatest proportion of jobs (over 77,0000) coming from a revised tax incentive for commercial retrofits, also known as 179D (see joint report "A New Retrofit Industry").

Simply, green jobs are win-win. The green building retrofit jobs that President Obama and President Clinton have worked to encourage are new jobs that can’t be outsourced. And in addition, green jobs have the added benefit of creating healthier communities, protecting the planet, and fostering a globally competitive workforce. Thus, the CNN article, which compares the jobs created by the potential Keystone XL pipeline to environmental jobs, sets up a false choice. We have long shown unequivocally that we can advance our economic prosperity without compromising the protection of our environment.

Ultimately, we shouldn’t allow green jobs to be a political punching bag (like Congressman Issa’s hearings as Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform). We need to fight back against the slander. Get involved in advocacy for green buildings and green jobs. Tell Congress what we want, because, after all, they’re supposed represent us, right?

Green Retrofits on the Rise: LEED for Existing Buildings Surpasses New Construction Projects, Echoes Industry Shift

Doug Gatlin
Vice President, LEED
U.S. Green Building Council

The U.S. landscape is covered by more than 60 billion square feet of existing buildings, many of them hogging inordinate amounts of resources and energy due to outdated infrastructure. The potential to green this building stock is vast, and more importantly, the potential is being realized: We announced last week that LEED-certified existing buildings are surpassing new construction projects by 15 million square feet, cumulatively.

This news comes just one week after President Obama and former President Clinton announced that the federal government will invest $2 billion in energy efficiency, with an equal investment from the private sector in response to the Better Buildings Challenge, covering 1.6 billion square feet of commercial building space. Job creation potential there? 50,000 new jobs.

Earlier this year, the administration threw the lights on over the potential of a greener building stock with the Better Buildings Initiative, the goal of which is to cut energy consumption in commercial buildings by 20 percent, saving businesses $40 billion.

It’s no secret that revisiting our existing buildings and making them cleaner, safer, and more efficient is one of our strongest opportunities to cut global emissions and conserve precious resources; create jobs and save taxpayer dollars. The announcement about the growth of LEED-certified existing buildings is significant because it heralds that project teams, developers and building owners around the world are seizing this opportunity in greater numbers than ever. Green building is not just for new buildings – that way of thinking is evaporating faster than you can say “EB.”

Global projects like the recently LEED-certified Empire State Building are proving this, and setting an example for other forthcoming retrofits. Greening this globally known New York City landmark will result in a predicted 38 percent energy savings and $4.4 million in energy cost savings annually.

Another skyline-defining project, Taipei 101, not only is known for being the second tallest building in the world, but also one of the greenest: The skyscraper was designed to use 30 percent less energy, reducing annual utility costs by $700,000 per year.

The FBI Regional Headquarters in Chicago, the first Platinum LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (O&M) project reduced operating expenses by 25 cents per square foot, achieved an ENERGY STAR rating of 95 and reduced water use by 43 percent. One Bush Street in San Francisco successfully implemented for only 31 cents per square foot while still earning covetable LEED Platinum. You can learn more about these projects in the USGBC LEED Stories from Practice, case studies submitted by LEED project team members detailing goals, strategies, processes and lessons learned from completed projects, along with a detailed LEED scorecard. We encourage you to take a look at these blueprints for success in the beta library and provide your feedback.

Who Cares About Better Buildings? A Diverse Group of Companies Answer, “We Do!”

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

As a movement, we knew we had come a long way when President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative in February, establishing the goal of slashing energy consumption in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020. Groups like USGBC, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Real Estate Roundtable (RER) applauded the plan. But articulating the goal and achieving it are two different things, and we all realize that so much of the initiative hinges on coordinating and communicating as we are pursuing building improvements and smart policy changes. That’s why we have again joined with NRDC and RER to launch the Coalition for Better Buildings (www.C4BB.org), an action network dedicated to improving energy efficiency of commercial and multi-family buildings. The website went live last week and new members are joining daily.

With representatives across the building industries, we are stepping up to tell all who will listen how everyone benefits from better buildings and what changes are needed to realize those benefits. Whether it's for job creation, energy and water savings, health improvements, increased productivity, or other reasons, we are once again coming together to show why we care about better buildings.

• Building owners want to stop wasteful energy consumption. They want access to their building energy information so they can start making improvements. They want to see investments in their buildings lead to higher value. And they want access to financing so they can start the improvements immediately.
• Building operators want support to implement the money saving solutions they identify. They want to be able to get the data so they can show how much they are improving the buildings.
• Tenants want to make efficiency upgrades in their spaces and make sure their bills actually go down. They want to work with the owner on upgrades that will improve the entire building.
• Lenders want to get the information they need to understand the savings that will occur and risk of the project before they lend.
• Architecture and engineering firms want to design and sell better building systems.
• Builders want to see their best buildings in high demand on the market.
• Manufacturers want to sell their best, most efficient products that they have researched and brought to the market.
• Energy service companies want to increase opportunities to scale their low risk, high reward services.
• Commissioning companies want more jobs tuning building systems so that they operate as they were designed.
• Affordable housing providers need solutions to the same problems they find in multi-family buildings.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. And if you look at the C4BB mission and member list, you'll see that's exactly what these companies are saying.

We know you care about better buildings, too, so have your company join us in C4BB as we coordinate to tear down the barriers that are keeping us from achieving impressive reductions in energy consumption even before 2020. Let’s get started.

New Report: Better Buildings = 114,000 New Jobs

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

Today USGBC, with our partners at the Real Estate Roundtable and the Natural Resources Defense Council, released an analysis conducted by the Political Economy Research Institute that concludes that President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative (BBI) will create over 114,000 jobs.

As background, the Better Buildings Initiative is a collection of legislative proposals and federal agency actions designed to encourage the efficiency improvement of commercial buildings. The President has recommended tax incentives, grant and challenge programs, and increasing the availability of financing for the improvements. The analysis covers the major components of the initiative: the tax incentives, the financing programs, and the grant programs.

The full report is available at http://www.USGBC.org/advocacy/BBIJobs. Here’s what you need to know:

• The Better Buildings Initiative would create more than 114,000 jobs.
• The greatest jobs-creating impact – over 77,000 new jobs – would derive from a revised tax incentive to encourage building retrofits.
• New job creation would ripple throughout the economy. New jobs would be created directly at construction sites, which in turn would spur more jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors.
• The Better Buildings Initiative’s federal incentives are an investment to trigger private sector spending, which in turn produces widespread benefits. For example, tax incentives would encourage at least three times as much private investment to make buildings more efficient.
• Businesses would save over $1.4 billion in energy bills as a result of retrofit projects spurred by the tax incentive, which would in turn be re-injected into the economy.

The most significant job creator considered is the revision of the existing tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings, section 179D. These are the same revisions supported by 86 diverse organizations and the subject of the recent letter to the Senate written about last week. The proposal with its unique structure would create 77,000 jobs while achieving real quantifiable energy efficiency improvements. Actual measured performance is required to take full advantage of the redesigned incentive.

The report also outlines how these jobs would be created in engineering and in performing the retrofits, manufacturing the new efficient equipment and materials, operating, commissioning, and servicing the buildings, and finally in the re-spending of the significant energy savings.

The conclusion that commercial building energy efficiency creates jobs, and a staggering number of new jobs is not new. This report joins and supports the conclusion of a host of others on the topic.

• McKinsey found 600,000 to 900,000 new jobs in energy efficiency over all sectors.
• ACEEE found 333,000 new jobs in proposed energy efficiency legislation last year. Over 150,000 of these jobs were from the bi-partisan yet now politically infeasible HomeStar program for home retrofits.
• UC Berkeley found that California’s energy efficiency policies on the books will create 200,000 jobs by 2020, with more jobs of higher quality possible with some additional measures.

With this new analysis we now know how much of the huge opportunity for job creation through energy efficiency may be achieved through implementation of the Better Buildings Initiative. USGBC and its member companies will continue to support the agencies moving forward with the administrative components of the BBI while working with our many allies to convince Congress to move forward with the changes to the tax code that could potentially unlock a huge number of jobs in commercial energy efficiency. Stay tuned to this blog for opportunities to get involved.

Government Summit Highlights Accountable, Results-Based Government

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

At USGBC’s 9th annual Government Summit last week it was as clear to all in attendance that governments at every level are leading by example in building sustainability. Among the signs of progress was Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announcing an increased commitment by the U.S. Navy and Marines to build to LEED Gold, up from their previous LEED Silver commitment. We also saw USGBC award the 2011 Federal Green Building Leadership Awards to both Kathleen Hogan and the ENERGY STAR program for their foundational work. Attendees received an update from the White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley on the President’s Better Buildings Initiative. The fighting spirit of our government employees as they look to meet the challenge of building energy efficiency and sustainability was plain to see, in sharp contrast to the attitude displayed a mile away at the Capitol.

Perhaps most uplifting was the closing plenary, which featured world-changing energy efficiency scientist, advocate, and former California Energy Commissioner, Dr. Art Rosenfeld and the Governor of Maryland and former Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O’Malley. The timing and content of their presentations drove home a point that often gets lost in the everyday noise of politics – that government, when advised by science, can be effective in everything from reducing energy consumption to fighting violent crime, and can be open and accountable to the people they govern.

Dr. Rosenfeld told the story of testifying in California in the late 70’s, where he made the then-revolutionary claim that energy efficiency could stop the ever growing need for more power plants and more fossil fuels. The truth of this claim is plainly evident today, as California’s per capita energy consumption has been maintained from that point forward, while doubling in the rest of the country. This is a clear example of a state government honestly assessing the direction in which they were headed and acting on the science clearly presented to them to change course.



Dr. Rosenfeld then explained a new opportunity to change course at the global level by presenting his most recent research on the "global cooling capacity" of white roofs that, by reflecting light (and thus, energy or potential heat) back out of the atmosphere, are offsetting greenhouse gas emissions to the tune of 10 tons of CO2 for every thousand square feet of white roof. Dr. Rosenfeld added that the CO2 emissions from half the cars in the world could be offset for 20 years if all urban flat roofs worldwide were white.

Governor O’Malley followed Dr. Rosenfeld with present day examples of how Maryland is reacting to the reality his state’s needs and using GIS technology to deploy resources to where they are most needed. The Governor showed the evolution of a map of locations of violent crimes in Baltimore and you could see how the city became safer every year. Maryland is now applying this approach across the state, from the cleaning the Chesapeake to encouraging green buildings. Real results will trump partisan bickering every time, and in the case of Maryland we can see these results in the green building world, as the state has more than 28 million square feet of certified commercial space. We expect this success to continue, as the day before the summit, the Governor signed a bill that made Maryland the first state to enable the adoption of the International Green Construction Code as a minimum building code.


The idea of accountable, results-based government is certainly a breath of fresh air in today’s political climate. I’d venture to guess that the standing ovation that followed these presentations demonstrates that the Government Summit attendees felt the same way. Next year, when many of these same folks gather together at the 2012 Government Summit, there certainly will be more green building dots on the map and many more positive results to celebrate.

USGBC Testifies on Strategies to Increase Efficiency in the Federal Government and Promote the Better Buildings Initiative

Doug Gatlin, U.S. Green Building Council’s Vice President of LEED, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the how the General Services Administration (GSA) can eliminate waste, cut costs and improve environmental performance through improved building management and purchasing.

“With an inventory of more than 7,000 government-leased and 1,500 government-owned buildings – representing more than 354 million square feet of space nationwide – GSA has an extraordinary capacity to reduce the environmental impact of our nation’s buildings and save taxpayer dollars,” said Gatlin.

Joined by GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and other members of the real estate and business community, Gatlin provided Senators with a number of options to improve environmental performance while decreasing costs to taxpayers. He outlined a number of strategies including consistent funding to update, maintain and commission existing buildings.

“… commissioning costs, on average, $0.30/ft2 and generates between $0.25-$0.30/ft2 in whole building energy savings for a payback time of 1.1 years, and a 91% return on investment (ROI). This type of commissioning is arguably the single most cost effective strategy for reducing utility costs in buildings today.”

Jeffrey DeBoer, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Real Estate Roundtable, also joined Gatlin in calling for changes to the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction (179D) to make it more useable for existing buildings.

“As GSA develops its program to release excess properties into the marketplace, Congress should take complementary steps to enable retrofits of those assets by re-designing section 179D,” said DeBoer.

Changes to the tax deduction along with a number of other programs to spur commercial building efficiency were included in the recent Better Buildings Initiative (BBI) announced by the President Obama earlier this year.

To watch the full archived hearing or to read the full testimony click here.

For a detailed summary of BBI click here.

Related posts:
USGBC and the Better Buildings Initiative: How Do We Get Started Sooner?
Congressional Outlook Uncertain, but Executive Branch Opportunity Abounds

New Fact Sheet Released: Energy Performance in the LEED Rating System

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

Every building professional knows that green building is a process, not an event. As a tool for encouraging green building, LEED reflects that reality, providing recognition of leadership in each part of that process, from design and construction to operations and maintenance.

This is often overlooked when someone refers to a “LEED Certified” building: Where a building stands in the LEED process is an important distinction. A new fact sheet titled “Energy Performance in the LEED Rating System” explains how the LEED rating systems and requirements are supported by initiatives like the Building Performance Partnership to ensure that high performance green buildings live up to their energy potential.

And it is crucially important to understand the difference between potential and actual performance, because in many situations the concepts are conflated. Most folks think of LEED buildings as the shiny new building downtown. They say “It’s green!” or “It’s LEED!”, and it’s true that the building’s design and construction process has been subject to a rigorous evaluation over all categories of sustainability, and a certification level (Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum) has been determined. But that’s not the end of the story, as my colleague Lauren Riggs points out in her post. A building should live up to its potential, and it takes another type of building professional to drive the building into the next stage of the green building process.

The fact sheet details a crucially important tool in helping to realize a building’s performance in every aspect of sustainability: LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance. LEED buildings certified through EB:O&M are certified based upon their energy consumption in addition to the measures undertaken in the other credit categories covering water, indoor environmental quality, materials, and location. The amount of certified space under EB:O&M has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, surpassing the rate of certification for New Construction (see the graph in the fact sheet for exactly how much and how fast). We expect this growth to continue as the building industry (and even the President) focuses on improving existing buildings.

We hope that this focus on existing buildings’ performance will encourage folks to ask a follow up question about the new green building in the neighborhood: “Is it LEED EB:O&M?” A response of “Yes” to this question will mean that the building is a top performer not only in energy efficiency, but also in water efficiency, location and transportation efficiency, indoor environmental quality, etc.

Take a look at the fact sheet and feel free to post comments below. We hope it illuminates how all these initiatives are coordinated to help us reach our goal of transforming the built environment.

USGBC and the Better Buildings Initiative: How Do We Get Started Sooner?

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

Pretend you are the President of the United States for a minute. The economy has pulled out of the recession, but everyone is cautious about the fragility of the recovery. To get the energy we need, we’re razing mountains in Appalachia and sending billions for oil to undemocratic, unfriendly governments in the Middle East. And last summer oil drilling trashed the Gulf of Mexico and the state economies that depend on it.

So what do you do? Double down on the status quo and sacrifice more of your own country to mining and drilling? Or use less energy so you don’t have to? Seems like an easy choice, but you wouldn’t think so from listening to some members of Congress.

But where are the opportunities to use less energy? According to McKinsey and Company, most of the $1.2 Trillion (!!!) efficiency opportunity is in buildings. And where are the largest efficiency opportunities in the building sector? Well, the biggest buildings of course. Last month, President Obama announced an initiative designed to do just that.

The Better Buildings Initiative seeks to cut energy consumption in commercial buildings by 20 percent, while saving businesses $40 billion…per year! That’s money that will be spent on salaries and supplies rather than in just keeping the (inefficient) lights on. Click here for a section by section explanation of BBI.

Of course the USGBC community is thrilled to have the President add commercial buildings to his overall efficiency focus. Many of the elements of the Initiative are actions we have long championed (see our report of Executive Authorities available to encourage energy efficiency in commercial buildings, or our memo on our top 3 priorities sent in just a few days before the announcement, and we look forward to working with the White House and Congress to make them a reality. As our CEO, Rick Fedrizzi, said during the White House call that followed the announcement, the only question USGBC member companies and chapter members have, is “How can we get started sooner?”

Click here for the detailed breakdown of BBI.

DOE and NREL: Zero Energy Building with Zero Added Costs?

Hope Lobkowicz
Manager, Policy
U.S. Green Building Council

DOE and NREL: Zero Energy Building with Zero Added Costs? That's what I call Global Leadership. Now Let's Keep it Up.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, member countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group got together to discuss the state of green building, building efficiency standards, and codes within APEC economies. The United States is the 2011 host of this prestigious, trade-based multilateral process, made up of 21 participating countries that comprise approximately 60% of world GDP and more than half of global trade.

At the workshop - Green Buildings and Green Growth: The Enabling Role of Standards and Trade - it became abundantly clear that countries are moving at an astounding pace to implement sustainable building practices and other strategies to reduce energy use. While I was tickled to hear about Chile's new residential energy labeling initiative, and Indonesia's new 'Greenship' rating system, I couldn't help but think as the workshop went on: What is it going to take to maintain U.S. leadership on green buildings?

As if to read my mind, USA at APEC did not disappoint. At the end of the two-day workshop, Roland Risser, Program Manager of Department of Energy's Building Technologies Program, wowed the crowd with a splendid testimonial of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)'s Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo. – the largest zero energy commercial building in the country, which was designed and constructed to LEED Platinum standards with zero added costs. With the Better Buildings Initiative (BBI) in his back pocket, Risser had no problem showcasing to everyone in the room that the United States is, and has been, the trend-setter in green buildings.

But we can't quit there. Something tells me USA can't chalk up a W just yet on green buildings. If we are competing against the rest of the world for an edge on the green tech industry and the jobs it will bring, the game isn't nearly over. As the APEC workshop illustrated, there is literally a gaggle of countries that have sprouted green building industries in the last few years that are now growing at lightning speed. Singapore, for instance, has witnessed a 15-fold increase in gross floor area of green buildings in the past five years. They also have a national goal to increase energy efficiency by 35% by 2030 above 2005 levels. When surveyed, 76% of APEC economies reported voluntary green building codes or rating systems for commercial buildings. Meanwhile, China is beating the United States in high-tech manufacturing exports. The list goes on. (As a reminder folks… the European Union isn't mentioned here because it is not part of the APEC process… lest we forget about that global green giant and their magnificent green targets and timetables.)

So what's a green building trendsetter like the United States to do? Well for goodness' sake, keep on, keepin' on! For the budget makers on the Hill: the United States has the lead – let's not lose it. Now, when we are on the cusp of a new energy revolution and zero energy buildings have just barely begun to break the cost curve, don't slash the White House request for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Instead, set the partisan rhetoric aside and start working with the White House on crafting new policies to help us stay competitive. You can focus on BBI and tax policy for starters.

And for the Administration: Listen to Roland. His theme on Friday was, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Meaningful political commitment to sustainability has proven to be a catalyst for successful implementation and private sector action.

Now how about a few more of those zero energy buildings?

Congressional Outlook Uncertain, but Executive Branch Opportunity Abounds

Lane Burt
Technical Policy Director
U.S. Green Building Council

There has been a whole lot of negative talk about the prospects for energy, climate or other significant legislation coming out of our newly divided Congress, and that is not the best news for the green building industry. However, this does not imply that green building advocates should pack up and go home – in fact, it means quite the contrary. It turns out that a renewed focus on utilizing the legal authority already granted to federal agencies by Congress could reap huge benefits for architects, engineers, builders, developers, manufacturers and others involved in the green building process.

The shocking size and scope of the United State’s potential energy and water savings were highlighted by a 2010 study on existing authorities held by the executive branch to push efficiency in commercial and multifamily buildings. USGBC commissioned this study with a diverse group of building sector organizations (e.g., the Natural Resources Defense Council, Real Estate Roundtable, and Building Owners and Managers Association).

The findings of this report were clear. There is something, and usually something very impactful, that nearly every agency can do to improve the public and private building stock. The more digging we did into the existing authorities, the more opportunities we discovered to “stoke the fire” of the building industry and its sustainable potential. I wrote about the highlights of the report when it was released, and the opportunities I noted then remain before us—still knocking—today.

In many ways, the sheer quantity of opportunities identified by the report (and sheer size of the report itself) is daunting. Where should the White House, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc. start? Which potentially transformative policy must come first?

That’s why the full report was just the beginning of a broader federal push. Over the weeks and months to come, we will be reaching out to our 16,000+ member companies and working with our other partners on the report to generate support for industry- and agency-specific recommendations—ones that are targeted, actionable, and potent. We want to make sure that the voices of our member companies and the larger green building community are heard by the executive branch. We expect to deliver real results from their advocacy and leadership. We have already sent our top three recommendations over to the Department of Energy. Our January 21st memo recommends action on a green real estate appraisal standard, the tax deduction for commercial energy efficient commercial buildings, and loan guarantees for financing retrofits.

And the executive branch is paying attention! The President recently announced the Better Buildings Initiative (BBI) to improve commercial building energy performance, and he touched specifically on two of the three priorities. The BBI calls on Congress to take action but also lays out the steps the Administration is going to take by utilizing their existing authorities to create better buildings, better jobs, and lower energy bills.

By targeting executive branch action— along with continuing to push Congress to make progress on BBI and our other priorities like energy and water efficiency, healthy built environments, livable and walkable communities— we will continue to push forward toward the transformation of the built environment. Elections may change our strategy, but they certainly don’t change our priorities—or our expectations for meaningful results.

Rick Fedrizzi on Winning the Future

Read USGBC Founding Chairman Rick Fedrizzi's piece on President Obama's Better Buildings Initiative in the The Huffington Post:

In his State of the Union address, President Obama boldly proclaimed that our nation has reached a "Sputnik moment" -- a point in time that will be characterized by our ability (or inability) to respond to an era as ripe for innovation as any that has presented itself in more than a generation. Seizing this moment, he said, is our opportunity to win the future.

Of course, a huge part of winning the future is to reduce our reliance on the fuels of the past. And last week, the president showed exactly the kind of leadership we will need to when he unveiled his Better Buildings Initiative.

Click here to read the rest of the Huffington Post article.