Department of Interior Formally Recognizes Green Globes™ System

In accordance with last year’s Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) recently approved an implementation plan which formally recognizes the Green Globes system, as well as approved alternatives, as a sustainable construction tool for all of the agency’s new construction and renovation projects.

Through the use of tools such as Green Globes, the DOI, an organization responsible for overseeing more than 40,000 buildings, will look to reduce the total ownership cost of facilities, improve energy-efficiency and water conservation, provide safe, healthy and productive built environments, and promote sustainable environmental stewardship.

“This is a very big step forward,” said GBI president Ward Hubbell. “By avoiding the mandate to use any one particular rating system, the DOI has chosen to focus on the end result and opened the door for any system able to facilitate the achievement of sustainability goals for building design and operation. This is something we believe is necessary to stimulate the kind of healthy competition that leads to innovation and improvement—and, ultimately, better buildings.”

Among its directives, the implementation plan calls for a “formal measurement of sustainable performance” on all occupied buildings with a cost of $2 million or more using a certification system such as Green Globes and a requirement that, at a minimum, the buildings achieve a one Globe or equivalent rating.

In releasing its plan, the DOI joins public sector institutions such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the states of Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota in formally recognizing Green Globes.