National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Front Matter
Suggested Citation:"Executive Summary." National Research Council. 2001. Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10093.
×
Page 1
Suggested Citation:"Executive Summary." National Research Council. 2001. Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10093.
×
Page 2
Suggested Citation:"Executive Summary." National Research Council. 2001. Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10093.
×
Page 3
Suggested Citation:"Executive Summary." National Research Council. 2001. Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10093.
×
Page 4

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Executive Summary BACKGROUND Sustainable development as an integrated concept for buildings seeks to reverse the trends in the architectural and engineering communities that focus on first costs and treat each discipline's contribution to the whole building as separate, independent efforts. Sustainable development integrates all of the design disciplines so that limited resources are efficiently directed toward the goal of meeting user needs without setting one program need against another. The precepts for sustainability are that all resources are limited and it is less expensive short and long term to build in harmony with the environment. On June 3, 1999, Executive Order 13123, "Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy Management" was signed. Its preamble states that with more than 500,000 buildings, the Federal Government can lead-the Nation in energy efficient building design, construction, and operation. As a major consumer that spends $200 billion annually on products and services, the Federal Government can promote energy efficiency, water conservation, and the use of renewable energy products, and help foster markets for emerging technologies. Executive Order 13123 establishes goals for greenhouse gases reduction, energy efficiency improvement, industrial and laboratory facilities, renewable energy, petroleum, source energy, and water conservation. To achieve these goals, the executive order addresses sustainable development, the development of sustainable development principles, and states that agencies shall apply such principles to the siting, design, and construction of new facilities. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND STUDY OBJECTIVE The process for acquiring federal facilities is guided by a variety of laws, executive orders, policies, and regulations. This guidance is generally intended to provide 1

2 Sustainable Federal Facilities for an open' competitive process, to achieve best value or lowest cost, and to meet a variety of social and economic objectives. Because this guidance has been developed from a number of sources to meet a wide range of goals, conflicts among competing objectives can arise during the acquisition process, leading to tradeoffs that can compromise the design and consequently the energy and environmental performance of federal facilities. In the late 1990s, several of the sponsor agencies of the Federal Facilities Council began developing and implementing initiatives and policies related to sustainable development. Guidance related to life-cycle costing and value engineering was recognized as being supportive of sustainable development, in particular when used in the conceptual planning and design phases of acquisition, where decisions are made that substantially effect the ultimate performance of a building over its life cycle. However, specific concerns were raised that when federal agencies apply value engineering in the final stages of design or during construction in response to cost overruns, design features that support sustainable development may be eliminated. The primary objective of this study, therefore, was to develop a framework to show how federal agencies can use value engineering and life-cycle costing to support sustainable development for federal facilities and meet the objectives of Executive Order 13123. FRAMEWORK FOR ACQUIRING SUSTAINABLE FACILITIES Format The framework contained in Chapter 3 represents a process that will ideally be used by federal agencies; none of the FFC sponsors currently uses such a process. The framework is organized by general facility acquisition phases and shown in Figure ES-1. Requirements Conceptual Programming/ ~ __ To ~~ Design Construction t Value ~ | Value engineering J ~ engineering FIGURE ES-1 Framework format. r Start-up Decisions that need to be made in each phase are highlighted. To facilitate decision making, sustainable development considerations are posed as questions, moving from macro-level considerations, such as the relationship of the proposed facility to

Executive Summary 3 agency mission, to more detailed considerations, such as the choice of building materials and systems to on-site construction methods. Sustainable development considerations are further organized by the principles formulated to implement Executive Order 13123 related to siting, energy, materials, water, indoor environmental quality, and operation and maintenance practices. Examples of practical actions and strategies that can be employed to support the principles are highlighted. To support sustainable development, value engineering and life cycle cost analyses to evaluate a range of sustainable development options are used in the conceptual planning, design and construction phases of acquisition. Using value engineering and life-cycle costing in the conceptual planning phase is not standard federal practice. However, it is during conceptual planning and design that the decisions having the greatest impact on cost and on the ultimate sustainability of a facility are made, including decisions affecting operations, maintenance, and disposal. If there are tradeoffs to be made, it is clear that the earlier in the process that value engineering is employed, the greater the potential benefits for sustainable development and cost savings. Documenting Objectives, Decisions, ant! Assumptions Because the federal acquisition process can take three to five years or longer, changes in leadership, in-house staff, and consultant staff are likely. Because team members will change, it is important those agency objectives, decisions, and assumptions for sustainable development be clearly and completely documented during each acquisition phase. Key aspects to be documented include the project philosophy (i.e., what is to be achieved by acquiring a facility), sustainable development objectives, design goals, choice of materials, technologies, and systems. The purpose of the documentation is to create an institutional record. The cumulative record of decisions relating to a project can be reviewed at each subsequent decision point or to help integrate new team members into the process. Integrated Project Team Approach Using an integrated project team approach from conceptual planning through start-up is essential to implement this framework effectively. The team should include the primary stakeholders (the facility owner, users, and operators) architects, engineers, planners, value engineers, environmental designers/engineers, interior designers, contracting officers, constructors, and facility managers responsible for operating and maintaining the facility. Using an integrated project team approach will better enable the primary stakeholders to establish objectives for sustainability, functionality and performance and make informed decisions about tradeoffs among resources, materials, mission objectives, and building performance for the short and long term. An integrated project team approach will also help to ensure that contract documents are written to support design, construction, and performance objectives and facilitate a better understanding of how the materials and systems being considered in the conceptual

4 Sustainable Federal Facilities planning and design phases will affect first costs and life-cycle costs, operations and maintenance practices, and the ultimate performance of a facility over its lifetime. Performance Measures Executive Order 13123 establishes goals for energy efficiency and sustainable facilities. At the beginning ofthe acquisition process, when agencies are setting goals and objectives for a facility's performance, it is important to establish measures and methods for determining how well those goals and objectives are being met. Establishing quantifiable and qualitative objectives and measures at the beginning of the acquisition process and measuring performance after occupancy is a key component of acquiring sustainable facilities. ISSUES During the course of this study, several issues related to implementation of sustainable development practices were identified. The issues relate to . a fundamental conflict between federal acquisition policies that require life-cycle costing and the federal budget process that emphasizes the first costs of facilities. the need to review master specifications and guide books to determine where modifications are needed to support sustainable development. setting performance standards against which sustainable facilities will be measured. · identifying environmentally preferable products. establishing lessons-learned programs. ONLINE RESOURCES Because sustainable development is a relatively new approach in the acquisition of federal facilities, and to share information, the task group presents in Chapter 5 a list of Web-based tools and resources related to sustainable development, and value · ~ engineering.

Next: 1. Introduction »
Sustainable Federal Facilities: A Guide to Integrating Value Engineering, Life-Cycle Costing, and Sustainable Development Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $64.00 Buy Ebook | $49.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

In the late 1990s, several of the sponsor agencies of the Federal Facilities Council began developing and implementing initiatives and policies related to sustainable development. Guidance related to life-cycle costing and value engineering was recognized as being supportive of sustainable development, in particular when used in the conceptual planning and design phases of acquisition, where decisions are made that substantially effect the ultimate performance of a building over its life cycle. However, specific concerns were raised that when federal agencies apply value engineering in the final stages of design or during construction in response to cost overruns, design features that support sustainable development may be eliminated. The primary objective of this study, therefore, was to develop a framework to show how federal agencies can use value engineering and life-cycle costing to support sustainable development for federal facilities and meet the objectives of Executive Order 13123.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!