Federal Sustainability Requirements and Guidelines (2022). EPA is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water and waste at its facilities and operating high-performance sustainable buildings. In addition to demonstrating leadership, these efforts help the Agency meet the following federal requirements and guidance.
US Department of Energy (2022). A clean energy revolution is taking place across America, underscored by the steady expansion of the U.S. renewable energy sector. The clean energy industry generates hundreds of billions in economic activity, and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. There is tremendous economic opportunity for the countries that invent, manufacture and export clean energy technologies. Responsible development of all of America’s rich energy resources -- including solar, wind, water, geothermal, bioenergy & nuclear -- will help ensure America’s continued leadership in clean energy. Moving forward, the Energy Department will continue to drive strategic investments in the transition to a cleaner, domestic and more secure energy future.
US Department of Agriculture (2022) Technical Guide for Monitoring Wildlife Habitat. Information about status and trend of wildlife habitat is important for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service to accomplish its mission and meet its legal requirements. As the steward of 193 million acres (ac) of Federal land, the Forest Service needs to evaluate the status of wildlife habitat and how it compares with desired conditions. Habitat monitoring programs provide information to meet the needs of the agency while fostering use of standardized, integrated approaches to produce robust knowledge. This technical guide provides current, scientifically credible, and practical protocols for the inventory and monitoring of terrestrial wildlife habitat. Protocols include data standards, data-collection methods, and methods for detecting and monitoring changes over time (Powell 2000). To our knowledge, this document is the first comprehensive guide to monitoring wildlife habitats. It serves a unique role by providing protocols specifically tailored to habitat monitoring, which is especially pertinent for the Forest Service, given its role in managing landscapes that support a wide diversity of taxa across the major biomes of North America.
Living Building Challenge 4.0 (2022) LBC 4.0 has been developed based on two goals: to simplify the program so the level of effort of teams is better aligned with their impacts at both project and market scales; and to fill the gap between the highest levels of mainstream green building certifications, and the entry point to the Living Building Challenge.The resulting standard is streamlined and also raises the bar by requiring that teams address basic issues in all petals. A number of new performance-based compliance paths have been added to increase flexibility for teams.
LEED Certification for Neighborhood Development (2022) Looking beyond the scale of buildings to consider entire communities. LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) was engineered to inspire and help create better, more sustainable, well-connected neighborhoods. It looks beyond the scale of buildings to consider entire communities. Why? Because sprawl is a scary thing. Here’s the antidote.
Passive House Standards (2022) the Passive House Institute has assumed a leading position with regard to research on and development of construction concepts, building components, planning tools and quality assurance for especially energy efficient buildings. PHI has been responsible for the building physics related consultancy and technical guidance on a number of firsts including the first Passive House office building, the first Passive House factory, the first Passive House schools and gymnasiums, the first Passive House indoor pool halls and the first Passive House retrofits. The Institute is currently providing such expertise for numerous new, innovative projects.
National Environmental Education Act, Publ. L. No. 101-619. (1990). https://www.epa.gov/education/national-environmental-education-act-0
