at using the SPiRiT rating process and applying sus-
tainable design practices,” ACSIM Commander Maj
Gen. Larry J. Lust, raised the minimum threshold to
SPiRiT Silver for the FY06 program (OACSIM, 2002).
Citing “considerable progress laying the foundation
for sustainable facilities in the Army” that had been
made, Fiori raised the bar again to SPiRiT Gold in
March 2003, where it remained until LEED was ad-
opted (OASA (I&E), 2003). The USGBC continued to
evolve LEED, but as they did so, publishing LEED-NC
2.1 in November 2002 and LEED-NC 2.2 in October
2005, Army development of SPiRiT did not keep pace.
Revised versions of SPiRiT paralleling revisions that
had been made to LEED-NC were prepared but never
fielded. The last draft update was SPiRiT, Version 2.1,
in September 2004.
In May 2003, USACE and ACSIM collaborated on
a program to validate the Army’s self-scoring process
for SPiRiT. Under the SPiRiT program, project de-
livery teams (PDTs) were to self-score their projects,
meet as a team to reach a consensus on a final score,
then endorse the final project SPiRiT score. Five proj-
ects were reviewed by a four-member SPiRiT valida-
tion team between July and August 2004. The SPiRiT
Validation Team concluded: “Considering that the
SPiRiT policy was issued late for full sustainable con-
sideration in the planning and design phases of FY02
projects, the Project Delivery Teams did an exemplary
job.” They further concluded that “by applying the
improvement opportunities recommended...future
project delivery teams could achieve Silver and low
Gold without additional project costs.” LEED contin-
ued to evolve as the private sector’s green building
rating system of choice. As Army project delivery
teams became accustomed to using SPiRiT and more
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