42 U.S.C. § 17092: High-performance green Federal buildings

establish and manage the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings; and carry out other duties as required under this part. The compensation of the Federal Director shall not exceed the maximum rate of basic pay for the Senior Executive Service under section 5382 of title 5 , including any applicable locality-based comparability payment that may be authorized under section 5304(h)(2)(C) of that title. coordinate the activities of the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings with the activities of the Office of Commercial High-Performance Green Buildings, and the Secretary, in accordance with section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title ; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive; the Office of Federal Procurement Policy; the Department of Energy; the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Defense; the Department of Transportation; the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy; establish a senior-level Federal Green Building Advisory Committee under section 474, 1 which shall provide advice and recommendations in accordance with that section and subsection (d); 1 See References in Text note below. identify and every 5 years reassess improved or higher rating standards recommended by the Advisory Committee; ensure full coordination, dissemination of information regarding, and promotion of the results of research and development information relating to Federal high-performance green building initiatives; identify and develop Federal high-performance green building standards for all types of Federal facilities, consistent with the requirements of this part and section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title ; establish green practices that can be used throughout the life of a Federal facility; review and analyze current Federal budget practices and life-cycle costing issues, and make recommendations to Congress, in accordance with subsection (d); and identify opportunities to demonstrate innovative and emerging green building technologies and concepts. identify, review, and analyze current budget and contracting practices that affect achievement of high-performance green buildings, including the identification of barriers to high-performance green building life-cycle costing and budgetary issues; develop guidance and conduct training sessions with budget specialists and contracting personnel from Federal agencies and budget examiners to apply life-cycle cost criteria to actual projects; identify tools to aid life-cycle cost decisionmaking; and explore the feasibility of incorporating the benefits of high-performance green buildings, such as security benefits, into a cost-budget analysis to aid in life-cycle costing for budget and decisionmaking processes. the provision of recognition awards; and the maximum feasible retention of financial savings in the annual budgets of Federal agencies for use in reinvesting in future high-performance green building initiatives. the extent to which the programs are being carried out in accordance with this part and the requirements of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title ; and the status of funding requests and appropriations for those programs; identifies within the planning, budgeting, and construction process all types of Federal facility procedures that may affect the certification of new and existing Federal facilities as high-performance green buildings under the provisions of section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title and the criteria established in subsection (h); identifies inconsistencies, as reported to the Advisory Committee, in Federal law with respect to product acquisition guidelines and high-performance product guidelines; recommends language for uniform standards for use by Federal agencies in environmentally responsible acquisition; restructuring of budgets to require the use of complete energy and environmental cost accounting; using operations expenditures in budget-related decisions while simultaneously incorporating productivity and health measures (as those measures can be quantified by the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, with the assistance of universities and national laboratories); streamlining measures for permitting Federal agencies to retain all identified savings accrued as a result of the use of life-cycle costing for future high-performance green building initiatives; and identifying short-term and long-term cost savings that accrue from high-performance green buildings, including those relating to health and productivity; identifies green, self-sustaining technologies to address the operational needs of Federal facilities in times of national security emergencies, natural disasters, or other dire emergencies; summarizes and highlights development, at the State and local level, of high-performance green building initiatives, including executive orders, policies, or laws adopted promoting high-performance green building (including the status of implementation of those initiatives); and includes, for the 2-year period covered by the report, recommendations to address each of the matters, and a plan for implementation of each recommendation, described in paragraphs (1) through (7). The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings shall carry out each plan for implementation of recommendations under subsection (f)(8). For the purpose of this section, not later than 60 days after December 19, 2007 , the Federal Director shall identify and shall provide to the Secretary pursuant to section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title , a certification system that the Director determines to be the most likely to encourage a comprehensive and environmentally-sound approach to certification of green buildings. a study completed every 5 years and provided to the Secretary pursuant to section 6834(a)(3)(D) of this title , which shall be carried out by the Federal Director to compare and evaluate standards; the ability and availability of assessors and auditors to independently verify the criteria and measurement of metrics at the scale necessary to implement this part; the ability of the applicable standard-setting organization to collect and reflect public comment; the ability of the standard to be developed and revised through a consensus-based process; efficient and sustainable use of water, energy, and other natural resources; use of renewable energy sources; improved indoor environmental quality through enhanced indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, day lighting, pollutant source control, and use of low-emission materials and building system controls; reduced impacts from transportation through building location and site design that promote access by public transportation; and such other criteria as the Federal Director determines to be appropriate; and national recognition within the building industry.