2(g) requires that: "(iii) at least 15 percent of the agency's existing buildings (above 5,000 gross square feet)…meet the Guiding Principles by fiscal year 2015…”.
[2] Each of these Guiding Principles has multiple criteria, ranging from reducing building energy use to meeting the EPA's recycled content recommendations.
[1] To measure compliance with the Guiding Principles, federal agencies have options that include EPA's Federal High Performance Sustainable Buildings Checklist, paper evaluations by internal staff, ad hoc evaluations by external consultants, and a commercially available product, the Guiding Principles Compliance Assessment Program from the Green Building Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
This program consists of a survey, third-party on-site assessment, compliance score and rating, and reports.
The program focuses on gathering the building documentation necessary for verification of compliance, and providing it to a third-party assessor for review during an on-site assessment.