Contractors Are You Ready?
President Obama'sExecutive Order 13514 set out standards for the federal government's transition to becoming green. While the order focused on emissions reductions and the greening of data centers it also includes the following requirements for green buildings, courtesy ofReuters:
Obama's executive order lays out similar guidelines for the government's buildings, starting with the ambitious goal that, "beginning in 2020 and thereafter ... all new Federal buildings that enter the planning process are designed to achieve zero net-energy by 2030." Section 2 (g) of the order also includes the following details:
(iv) pursuing cost-effective, innovative strategies, such as highly reflective and vegetated roofs, to minimize consumption of energy, water, and materials;
(v) managing existing building systems to reduce the consumption of energy, water, and materials, and identifying alternatives to renovation that reduce existing assets' deferred maintenance costs;
(vi) when adding assets to the agency's real property inventory, identifying opportunities to consolidate and dispose of existing assets, optimize the performance of the agency's real- property portfolio, and reduce associated environmental impacts; and
(vii) ensuring that rehabilitation of federally owned historic buildings utilizes best practices and technologies in retrofitting to promote long- term viability of the buildings.
As my colleague Chris Cheatham pointed out in his article Four Steps To Green Contracting with the Government contractors need to begin navigating the field of green credentials and positioning themselves for bidding on federal projects in the future. So contractors, are you ready?
Great head's up to contractors seeking to either break into or continue in the Federal contracting realm. Whether the goal is achievable or not, this is something contractors must keep an eye on.
Chris,
Thanks for the comment. There is currently a great deal of anxiety being expressed by members of the A/C/E fields as to what the new legislation and requirements will mean to their businesses. I think that people such as yourself, and Chris Cheatham do an excellent job of opening individuals eyes to the hot button issues.
I would like to know who I can contact about bidding on jobs,such as "babcock ranch", that would be willing to talk to someone that could install geothermal systems that have and always will work properly and efficiently. I have in the past installed geothermal systems that worked very well and still to this day work well. The key to a successful geothermal system is in the proper installation and service of the ground source water supply and water return system. The certified well company I used for my systems have always worked properly. This company does more repairs to systems they didn't install than they do new installations,which is extremely sad because of lack of well installation knowledge. If the well is no good nothing else will work. All of my installs worked perfectly and we had very happy homeowners. I personally feel "babcock ranch" would be the perfect project for added energy savings and to prove geothermal systems do and can work well. Thank You for your time to read this,Bob Hayman