gases and ozone depleting chemicals; use of limited
material resources; management of water as a limited
resource; reductions in construction, demolition and
operational waste; indoor environmental quality; and
occupant/worker health, productivity and satisfac-
tion.Army Sustainable Facility Research
As the Army pursued sustainability for its facili-
ties, it relied heavily on a unique resource within the
USACE research and development (R&D) community.
The Construction Engineering Research Laboratory
(CERL) has long focused on helping military instal-
lations become more sustainable through its research
and technical expertise. CERL initiated R&D activities
focused on the sustainable design and construction of
Army facilities in October 1999. A focused sustain-
ability research project was developed as an effective
response to EO 13101 and to establish a coordinated
sustainable design research agenda (ERDC-CERL
1999).
The research team evaluated the potential role of
USACE to become the recognized source of sustain-
able design expertise for the Army, Department of De-
fense (DOD), and the nation and identified roles for
the Corps and the technologies that could be devel-
oped or mobilized to attain that end (Flanders 2000).
The research eventually lead to the development and
fielding of the Army’s first green building rating tool,
Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT) (USACE
2001) and later the adoption of USGBC’s Leadership in
Environmental and Energy Design for New Construc-
tion (LEED-NC) as the Army’s rating tool in January
2005 (USGB 2005).
Early CERL research focused on an evaluation of
the current state of practice in sustainable design in