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New Construction and Renovations at EPA
Whether building new or renovating a building, EPA promotes energy and resource efficiency, waste reduction, pollution prevention, indoor environmental quality, and other environmental factors. To encourage sustainable building design and construction, EPA uses several tools to incorporate, track and verify green building practices:
- GreenCheck
- Facilities Manual
- Lease Acquisition
- Guiding Principles for Sustainable New Construction and Major Renovations
- Third-party certification systems such as ENERGY STAR® and LEED®
GreenCheck
EPA uses GreenCheck to ensure projects comply with federal sustainability requirements and Agency green building goals. The GreenCheck process is used to evaluate all construction, renovation, alteration, repair and leasing projects. Learn more about EPA’s GreenCheck process.
Facilities Manual
The EPA Facilities Manual is composed of four distinct, yet complementary, resources for planning and managing EPA facilities. These four volumes are used to determine design intent, requirements, and the ongoing evaluation of EPA facilities:
- EPA Facilities Manual
- Volume 1: The Space Acquisition and Planning Guidelines
- Volume 2: The Architecture and Engineering Guidelines
- Volume 3: The Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Manual
- Volume 4: The Environmental Management Guidelines
Lease Acquisition
When existing leases occupied by EPA expire, the Agency uses this opportunity to acquire new space or renovate existing space to incorporate more sustainable features into the new lease. During the lease selection process, EPA establishes award factors that gives preference to buildings that have:
- Sustainable design and operations.
- Effective design of the site, building, tenant spaces, and building systems.
- Effective security parameters.
- A design, construction, and management team with proven sustainability experience.
Guiding Principles for Sustainable New Construction and Major Renovations
Federal new construction and renovation projects greater than 5,000 gross square feet are required to comply with the Guiding Principles for Sustainable New Construction and Major Renovations if cost-effective. Learn more about EPA’s implementation of the Guiding Principles.
Third-Party High Performance Building Certifications
EPA uses green building and energy performance certifications such as ENERGY STAR® as part of its toolkit for acquiring high performance green buildings and ensuring their continued performance. EPA has used the LEED® rating system in both owned and leased buildings; a full list of EPA’s certified buildings is available.