Army Targets Aggressive LEED, Green Building Goals

When the U.S. Army announced it was adopting the new ASHRAE 189.1 high-performance building standard, some in the green building community worried it was calling a retreat: the Army has required building to LEED Silver standards since 2006, and ASHRAE 189.1 jibes more closely with LEED at the Certified level. For now, though, the Army—which owns more than a billion square feet of building space—is not only keeping LEED Silver in addition to ASHRAE 189.1 but is also working toward net-zero energy, water, and waste at a number of its existing installations.

According to Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and the environment, 189.1 is a more prescriptive “cookbook” approach that works well for the military and the federal government more generally. “We need to know how to build a really good LEED building and follow the guidance and direction of federal mandates,” Hammack told