The Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI) provides the framework and support services to help custodian departments gain access to energy-efficiency or energy-management projects. This document provides a definition of the program and discusses the various roles and responsibilities of federal organizations in relation to FBI; discusses, in general terms, various Treasury Board and other policies as they relate to FBI; discusses policies as they relate specifically to contracts and other documentation associated with FBI. It also includes answers to frequently asked questions about FBI.

The Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI) provides the framework and support services to help custodian departments gain access to energy-efficiency or energy-management projects. This document provides a definition of the program and discusses the various roles and responsibilities of federal organizations in relation to FBI; discusses, in general terms, various Treasury Board and other policies as they relate to FBI; discusses policies as they relate specifically to contracts and other documentation associated with FBI. It also includes answers to frequently asked questions about FBI.

The Federal Buildings Initiative (FBI) offers federal departments or agencies an approach to making energy efficiency improvements to buildings and financing these improvements through outside sources of capital funds. This publication begins with an overview of the FBI and its services. Section II describes the steps involved in implementing energy efficiency projects under the FBI, from the planning stage through project implementation to auditing the results. The final section looks at energy performance contracting, including its scope, its conceptual basis, how to choose an energy management firm, and steps involved in activating an energy performance contract.

Through several case-studies of international and domestic buildings, this text is an explanation by 14 experts who individually address the public policy known as design review, in which buildings and public policy intersect.

The design, construction, operation, and retrofit of buildings is evolving in response to ever-increasing knowledge about the impact of indoor environments on people and the impact of buildings on the environment. Research has shown that the quality of indoor environments can affect the health, safety, and productivity of the people who occupy them. Buildings are also resource intensive, accounting for 40 percent of primary energy use in the United States, 12 percent of water consumption, and 60 percent of all non-industrial waste. The processes for producing electricity at power plants and delivering it for use in buildings account for 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. federal government manages approximately 429,000 buildings of many types with a total square footage of 3.34 billion worldwide, of which about 80 percent is owned space. More than 30 individual departments and agencies are responsible for managing these buildings. The characteristics of each agency's portfolio of facilities are determined by its mission and its programs. In 2010, GSA's Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings asked the National Academies to appoint an ad hoc committee of experts to conduct a public workshop and prepare a report that identified strategies and approaches for achieving a range of objectives associated with high-performance green federal buildings. Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities identifies examples of important initiatives taking place and available resources. The report explores how these examples could be used to help make sustainability the preferred choice at all levels of decision making. Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities can serve as a valuable guide federal agencies with differing missions, types of facilities, and operating procedures.