In another victory for the Green Globes, the US Department of Defense has decided to allow its facilities to use the green building certification program.
While the US Green Building Council’s LEED certification has long been the standard of choice for the federal government’s new construction and major renovations, the Green Building Initiative’s upstart Green Globes continues to make strides as an alternative to LEED.
In October, the US General Services Administration (GSA) recommended the federal government use either the Green Globes or LEED to gauge environmental performance in its construction and renovation projects. The GSA previously required LEED for its own buildings and recommended LEED for other agencies’ buildings.
The DoD’s new policy to allow the use of Green Globes further validates the “increasing use of Green Globes by commercial building designers, owners and managers in the private sector” and now in the public sector, says Ray Tonjes, Chairman of GBI and president of Ray Tonjes Builder.
Previously the DoD’s policy had referenced only the LEED program. The DoD manages more than 500 installations worldwide comprising about 300,000 buildings covering 2.3 billion square feet — six times the footprint of the GSA.
Mark Wright, DoD spokesman, says “third party certification remains a key aspect of the compliance verification process; though no particular system is favored over another.” He did not respond to further questions about using Green Globes versus LEED.
Some trade groups have been urging the feds to ditch LEED, and in May 2012, a report from federal landlord the General Services Administration found that Green Globes met federal new construction requirements better than LEED, though LEED was still best for existing buildings.