for MILCON. While Army leaders liked LEED, they
still wanted an Army-focused product.
The Army entered into negotiations with USGBC
on the use of LEED-NC 2.0 as the basis for an Army
green building rating tool. Development efforts on
the Sustainable Project Rating Tool were redirected to
blend Army elements with the commercial standards
of LEED-NC 2.0 to form a unique tool for the Army.
The result was SPiRiT, the selected acronym for the
Sustainable Project Rating Tool. SPiRiT was LEED-
NC 2.0 with language edited to reflect an Army in-
stallation versus urban and commercial settings. Pri-
vate sector standards and criteria were replaced with
Army standards not present in LEED and structured
with a 100-point scale weighted according to Army
priorities. The Army entered into a formal licensing
agreement with the USGBC in April 2001 and SPiRiT
v1.4 was mandated as Army policy for all vertical con-
struction effective April 14, 2001. SPiRiT was fielded
under a revised ETL 1110-3-491 in May 2001 and re-
mained in use until LEED-NC 2.2 was adopted by the
Army in January 2006.
SPiRiT, similar to LEED, had various levels of per-
formance: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The
initial minimum performance for Army facilities was
SPiRiT Bronze. The minimum threshold increased
fairly rapidly. “Convinced that the [SPiRiT] process
was an excellent method for improving the quality of
the facilities built to support readiness, training, and
soldier wellbeing,” Assistant Secretary of the Army
Mario P. Fiori added his endorsement to the use of
SPiRiT (OASA[I&E] 2002). The tool was updated and
republished as version 1.4.1 in June 2002. By De-
cember 2002, stating that “the design and construc-
tion community had acquired significant experience
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