Obama Administration Pursues Uniform Infrastructure Sustainability Rating System

The Obama administration gathered construction industry and federal agency managers at a four hour closed door White House meeting March 9, 2012, to hash over ways to push some uniform sustainibility measurement standards into federal infrastructure procurement in the transportation, housing, federal office building, defense and urban development sectors. Jointly sponsored by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure, the private session was attended by federal bureaucrats from HUD, DOT, DOD, GSA, and OMB. DHS was not represented at the meeting.

Urging development of a uniform infrastructure sustainability standard siimilar to LEED for buildings, the Obama administration is pushing the Zofnass Program,  and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, together with industry groups including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Public Works Association and the American Council of Engineering Companies to come up with standardized criteria the federal government could incorporate into infrastructure bid documents and requests for proposals on infrastructure projects.  According to Paul J. Zofnass, president of New York City based environmental consutaing firm EFCG, Inc., “We either learn to make infrastructure sustainable, or we’re toast.”

Some industry attendees at the meeting complained that federal agencies resist sustainability in procurement bidding because considering it is too difficult within the confines of a “lowest responsible bidder” statutory procurement  framework.  Michael W. Creed, CEO of North Carolina based engineering firm McKim & Creed, remarked, “Should we add ‘depletion’ costs for non-renewable resources consumed during construction projects and use that as part of a sustainability scorecard?”  Currently there are at least two competing sustainability rating systems: “Envision,” developed through the Zofnass Program and Harvard University, and the ISI’s system, developed with input from various engineering professiona societies. Leaders of development of the “Envision” system expect to publicly release a pre-planning sustainability checklist and a project sustainability economic assessment tool later this year.

While the White House effort is a laudable one, it stands little chance of adoption any time soon. In the current Congressional enviornment of cost cutting and tax reform, anything involving evaulation of sustainability soft costs in the procurement process is likely to meet political put downs as “funny math” or “another bridge to nowhere.”

Mayor Emmanuel Announces Chicago Infrastructure Trust

With the think tank promoted concept of revenue stream repayment to private investors in government infrastructure construction projects languishing in legislative limbo in Washington DC and Springfield, Chicago’s newly elected Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has stuck out his neck with the announcement of formation of a Chicago Infrastructure Trust to attract private funding for city building energy retrofits, a rapid ride bus system, and extension of the southern end of the CTA red line light rail service.  Local officials of Citibank and JP Morgan Asset Management have expressed “preliminary non-binding interest” in ivesting in the Trust.

Emmanuel made the announcement in a speech to Carpenter Union trainees at an appresticeship shop March 1, 2012. Acknowledging the ongoing declines in federal and state funding for infrastructure construction, Emmanuel told the aspiring union carpenters “Our needs are growing. I can either look at that challenge, and stare at it hoping it gets better, or do something about it.” Whether the “non-binding interest” by private investors will materialze into real dollars invested remains to be seen.

Feds Attack Window Energy Saving Claims

Five replacement window vendors have agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to stop making exaggerated and unsupported claims about the energy efficiency of replacement windows. Long Fence and Home of Maryland, Serious Energy of California, THV Holdings of Kentucky, and Gorell Enterprises and Winchester Industries, both of Pennsylvania, were accused by the FTC of inability to back up their claims of substantial energy bill savings for consumers who had their replacement windows installed.

While denying any wrongdoing, all five firms have agreed to future civil penalties for making energy efficiency or cost saving claims not backed up with reliable scientific data. Because the energy savings from replacement windows are dependent on unknown factors respecting each individual home, such as location and size of the building, insulation in walls and ceilings, and energy efficiency of existing windows and doors, claims of up to 50% energy savings by installation of replacement windows could not be substantiated by the settling companies.

The main point is that even if a window vendor can demonstrate that its replacement product reduces energy loss by 50% compared to a homeowner’s existing window, replacement of all the windows in the house will not likely reduce the homeowner’s energy bills by 50%, due to the other factors involved.

Congress Stymies Better Buildings Initiative

Politicians in both Republican and Democratic parties say they believe issue number one in the upcoming Congressional and Presidential elections is job creation. You would think this would make it easy to move legislative initiatives that would create jobs, conserve energy, and lower taxes. Yet one such initiative proposed by the Obama administration is so stalled in Congress that no one is moving any bill to implement the program.

On February 3, 2011, the White House proposed its Better Buildings Initiative, to improve energy efficiency of existing buildings, reduce the energy bills of businesses and consumers, and conserve energy. According to a report released Monday, June 13, 2011 by The U S Green Building Council, The Real Estate Roundtable and The Natural Resources Defense Council, the administration’s proposed program would create 114,000 new jobs, 77,000 of them in the severely depressed construction industry. The Better Buildings Initiative was also the subject of a portion of testimony by U. S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary David Sandalow before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on June 3. As described, the Better Buildings Initiative will provide new tax incentives for building energy efficiency, new financing for retrofits of existing buildings, and streamlined building code provisions and performance requirements.

According to Roger Platt, a senior vice president of The Green Buildings Council, the Better Buildings Initiative will “lower energy consumption, reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and allow America to retain its competitive edge in the international economy.” What’s not to like?

Congressional Committees with jurisdiction include: House Ways and Means, Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and its Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee, Chairman Pat Tiberi (R-OH); House Energy and Commerce, Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and its Subcommittee on Energy and Power, Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY); and House Science, Space and Technology, Chairman Ralph M. Hall (R-TX) and its Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD). The websites of these committees and subcommittees are filled with diatribe attacking the Obama administration for inaction on the jobs and tax reduction fronts, yet there is no mention whatsoever of the Obama administration’s Better Buildings Initiative.

Republican politicians at all levels say they want lower taxes, less dependence on foreign oil, and more jobs. Private sector evaluation of the proposals in the Better Buildings Initiative says it will achieve all three goals. A polite letter to the committee chairmen listed above, pointing out that there should be strong bipartisan support for this proposal, and inquiring why it is going nowhere in the House, might kick some Republican butt, and get this job creator moving.

Republican “Green” Legislation

Sitting on President Obama’s oval office desk for the past 5 days is a piece of legislation described by House and Senate Republicans as “green” legislation to create cutting edge energy conservation technology jobs. Called the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act, and designated HR 5112 in the House and S 3250 in the Senate, the bill is supposed to cut federal government energy costs and train the federal building maintenance work force in the use of high performance technologies for energy conservation in federal buildings.

About 97% of federal office buildings use private contractors to maintain and manage the facilities, and according to House co-sponsors Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) and Russ Carnahan (R-Mo.), the legislation should cut the $7 billion spent annually on heating, cooling, powering and lighting federal facilities. GSA expects every dollar spent on training under this legislation to return $3.95 annually in energy cost savings. Senator Susan Collins (R-Me.), cosponsor of S 3250, quotes GSA as complaining that contractors responsible for managing federal facilities “lack qualified, well-trained people” to manage more than 500,000 federal buildings, structures, associated infrastructure and other physical assets in the U. S. and around the world.

The legislation was presented to Obama December 3, and awaits his signature. Interesting that the Republican climate change deniers were the ones to sponsor this bill in both houses. The stimulus legislation they have been complaining about for nearly 2 years appropriated $5.5 billion to GSA for upgrading energy efficiency of federal facilities, and ever since, GSA has been complaining that lack of proper expertise among facility operating personnel was a major roadblock in reaching federal government energy reduction goals. Once the bill is signed into law, training for the operators of the numerous federal buildings in the Chicago area should kick into high gear.

Get To Know The International Energy Conservation Code

Department of Energy construction projects funded by grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and soon, presumably, all federally funded construction under the Obama administration, will require compliance with the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, published by the International Code Council. Many states have adopted legislation requiring local governments to make the IECC part of their building codes, but adoption and enforcement has often been lax at the local level. Faced with federal government requirements which will cost hundreds of millions in stimulus appropriations if the IECC is not followed, state governments are stepping up enforcement of this requirement, and local building departments are beginning to insist on compliance before issuing building permits, whether or not the project in question involves federal funds.

Designers not familiar with the provisions of this code can obtain a copy of the complete document for $34.00 from the International Code Council, on this web site:

http://www.iccsafe.org/e/prodshow.html?prodid=3800S09&stateInfo=kbEbbbRc