§ 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—
(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—
(3)
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);
(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;
(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;
(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—
(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—
(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);
(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;
(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
For the purpose of this section, not later than 60 days after December 19, 2007, the Federal Director shall identify and shall provide to the Secretary pursuant to section
6834
(a)(3)(D) of this title, 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;
(E)
an evaluation of the robustness of the criteria for a high-performance green building, which shall give credit for promoting—
(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;
[1] See References in Text note below.