Guest Article by Tom Kelleher, Jr., Senior Partner, Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP
Introduction – Green Is Now Green construction is not the “Wave of the Future” in federal government construction contracts, it is here now. Whether building a new facility at a military base in Georgia or renovating a federal courthouse in the Pacific Northwest, the federal government is placing a strong emphasis on environmentally conscious (“green”) construction. Motivations for adoption of green construction vary from a desire to conserve resources and avoid adverse impacts to the environment to reducing the cost of operating and maintaining a facility, which can easily have a life span of several decades. Fortunately, environmental considerations and economics do not need to conflict as the long-term operating and maintenance cost of a facility can easily offset the incremental additional cost of designing and building a facility to achieve a specified requirement, standard, or code.
As the single largest property owner in the United States, the federal government has an obvious long-term interest in reducing its cost for operating and maintaining its facilities. The federal government’s emphasis on green construction is also evolving from a requirement to achieve a particular certification e.g., LEED Silver, to detailed requirements specifying expected energy savings or to the consideration of the proposed facility’s total ownership cost (“TOC”) as an award evaluation factor.Click .