familiar with LEED as it was reflected in SPiRiT, the
Army decided it was time to consider adopting LEED.
CERL, now part of the Engineer Research and Devel-
opment Center (ERDC), was asked to conduct a study
and make recommendations, not only on the adoption
of LEED, but the appropriate performance threshold.
It was at this point the Energy Policy Act (EPACT)
of 2005 established energy management goals for fed-
eral facilities and fleets and amended portions of the
National Energy Conservation Policy Act (EPACT
2005). It set federal energy management requirements
in several areas, including metering and reporting,
energy-efficient product procurement, energy savings
performance contracts, building performance stan-
dards, renewable energy requirement, and alternative
fuel use. Of particular interest are the requirements
for federal building performance. They include:
- Directs new federal buildings—commercial or
residential—to be designed to consume 30%
less energy than a baseline established by the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating,
and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
and the International Code Council’s Interna-
tional Energy Code (ASHRAE 2004). - Includes the application of sustainable design
principles for new buildings. - Requires federal agencies to identify new
buildings in their budget requests and those
that meet or exceed the standards, which DOE
must include in its annual report to Congress.
CERL conducted a study forecasting LEED scores
for projects evaluated under the first SPiRiT validation
activity, making the recommendation to adopt LEED-
NC v.2.2 and to establish the minimum performance
level at LEED Silver. Key to this recommendation was
the requirement that new Army facilities be designed