Sustainable Facilities Tool General Services Administration

Train personnel in proper maintenance techniques, including cleaning and relamping.

Develop an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) manual to serve as the lighting-management policy and a central operating reference for building managem...

Develop an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) manual to serve as the HVAC-management policy and a central operating reference for building management ...

Does the regular mechanical systems maintenance schedule include checks for refrigerant leaks?

Create a green cleaning maintenance plan utilizing less-toxic cleaning materials and strategies.

Train workplace specialists, maintenance staff, and occupants on the value of maintaining healthy IAQ.

Specify environmentally-certified or preferable products for all maintenance supplies.

Purchasing - Facility Maintenance and Renovation

Facility Maintenance and Renovation Policy

Solid Waste Management - Facility Maintenance and Renovation

Plan for sustainable site maintenance

Recycle organic matter generated during site operations and maintenance

The integrative design process doesn’t end when the lighting upgrade is installed. It is important to commission the new lighting technologies and d...

High-efficiency lighting tends to have very long life. Technologies like LEDs, which today have longer payback periods when considering energy alone...

Proper maintenance extends the life of your HVAC equipment and saves energy along the way. Panicked, late night service calls for your suddenly br...

The Federal Energy Management Program’s guide Operations & Maintenance Best Practices has detailed guidance and checklists on the maintena...

Provide an easy to follow and convenient platform for building occupants to report noticeable malfunctions or complaints about the HVAC system to ma...

Maintenance personnel are critical in sustaining a successful water system upgrade into the future. The water components need to be commissioned as ...

Within the office facility, leaks and corrosion can lead to expensive and time-consuming structural damage as well as an increase in water utility c...

Provide an easy to follow and convenient platform for building occupants to report noticeable leaks, malfunctions, or complaints about the water sys...

Maintenance personnel are critical in ensuring ongoing indoor environmental performance. Thorough green cleaning and purchasing plans should be easy...

Custodial and maintenance personnel are responsible for collection of trash, recyclables, and compostable material from designated locations through...

Intensive planted roofs can vary in their maintenance needs. A professional planted roof designer should establish the required number of maintenanc...

No matter how sustainable a building may be in design and construction, it can only remain so if it is operated responsibly and maintained properly....

Submetering systems must be installed and maintained properly by trained and motivated O&M staff to achieve the design performance objectives. O...

Ensure that building and system operators have access to training or are already prepared to provide cost-effective meter and invertor maintenance o...

Utilize sub-meters to monitor electricity use and use this data to identify waste and maintenance concerns.

Perform periodic maintenance of control systems to ensure optimized performance to avoid unwanted behavior by occupants to bypass the system.

Perform periodic maintenance of control systems to ensure optimized performance to avoid unwanted behavior by occupants to bypass the system.

Set up a 'hotline' to report leaks or other wastes of water to facility managers or maintenance personnel.

Is there a program of regular maintenance and cleaning of the cooling towers that includes monthly inspection for evidence of mold or slime?

A minimum of three maintenance visits per year is recommended for an extensive planted roof during the establishment period.

Intensive roofs generally require more frequent and longer maintenance visits than extensive roofs, both during the establishment period and afterwa...

Maintenance costs will be higher any time a planted roof includes a landscaped design, as workers will also need to spend time maintaining the desig...

The landscape architect is responsible for advising on sustainable landscape design and maintenance, to minimize the amount of waste transported fro...

U.S. Tax Court Planted Roof After Establishment U.S. Tax Court Planted Roof Before Establishment The first years of a planted roof’s...

By establishing green cleaning contracts and purchasing agreements that specify environmentally-friendly cleaning and office materials, the facility...

The commercial cleaning industry in the U.S. annually uses 8 billion pounds of chemicals annually.1 These chemicals, as well as operations and maint...

A successful Green Cleaning Plan limits the exposure of building occupants and maintenance personnel to potentially hazardous chemicals, ensures pro...

In many areas of the United States it is possible to design vegetative roofs without irrigation, including much of the Midwest and East. Even in ari...

Choosing lamps and fixtures with long lives not only saves on maintenance costs but reduces waste that might otherwise go to the landfill. LEDs cont...

Even though energy and maintenance are significant portions of an organization’s operating budget, these tend to be greatly outweighed by the cost o...

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design for Operations & Maintenance: Existing Buildings (LEED O+M: EB) addresses lighting systems through...

The facility manager collaborates with the building owner to reduce operating costs and works with the occupant to provide a comfortable space. The ...

The mechanical engineer is responsible for sizing the heating and cooling equipment based on both internal heat loads and heat loss through the buil...

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) for Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) addresses HVAC systems through a number of prereq...

Green Globes for Existing Buildings encourages the proper maintenance of not only HVAC equipment but also building elements that have an impact on h...

The plumbing engineer takes on the responsibility of ensuring that water, whether potable or non-potable, provides its intended benefit throughout t...

Green Globes for Existing Buildings encourages cognitive implementation and metering of water heating equipment for energy efficiency measures. With...

A primary component of a successful indoor environment quality strategy is air; specifically its composition, odor, temperature, and moisture conten...

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) for Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) dedicates an entire credit section to enhancing t...

The Facility Manager, who sometimes serves the building’s Recycling Coordinator, is responsible for procuring solid waste and recycling services and...

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) for Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) focuses on policies and best practices to manage ...

The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird...

The Owner determines the project scope, provides the budget,  and takes over the project and on-going maintenance at completion. The Owner shou...

The Landscape Architect is responsible for site analysis and can provide the design, layout, plant, and growing medium selection for the planted roo...

LEED Operations and Maintenance (O+M) for Existing Buildings addresses many of the benefits that planted roofs provide. Planted roofs have a positiv...

Submeters eliminate utility billing problems associated with arbitrary ratio-based measures (e.g. square footage) that favor high volume users over ...

Data provides important input to the design process. The availability of focused data can help establish direction for designing, building, and main...

Energy usage data for different types of buildings can serve to validate requirements within existing codes and standards, or identify new approache...

LEED Operations and Maintenance (O+M) for Existing Buildings requires building-level water and energy metering. This requirement is intended to help...

The process of ensuring that your building is operating properly starts with commissioning. In general, commissioning is the process of ensuring tha...

The lighting engineer is responsible for ensuring that all lighting regulations are met, interior and exterior spaces are sufficiently and elegantly...

High efficiency plumbing fixtures (toilets, urinals, faucets, and showers) can lead to significant water savings. FEMP BMP #6 gives some guidance on...

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) for Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) dedicates certification credits to reducing the b...

IEQ occupant surveys are a cost effective and valuable resource for identifying areas of discomfort or dissatisfaction to address during renovation ...

The integrative design process understands that buildings, their components, and their context are interrelated. Observe this principle by involving...

Using the data from submetering systems to better manage building operations and maintenance can have a significant impact on a building’s ove...

EISA 2007 established energy management goals and requirements, of which a sustainable lighting strategy is necessary, for federal buildings. It est...

Leaks in the water system, if left unidentified and untreated, can serve as a catalyst for mold growth within the building space. Prolonged exposure...

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an economically and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that utilizes preventative measures, m...

Entryway dirt capture systems serve to isolate contaminants that would otherwise be carried into the interior space, leading to decreased IAQ, cosme...

Optimizing operations and maintenance (O&M) strategies for building equipment technologies and systems improves operational efficiency, reduces ...

When employing sustainable lighting strategies, financial benefits can be realized from several sources including energy savings from proper control...

When employing sustainable HVAC strategies, financial benefits can be realized from several sources, including energy savings from proper controls, ...

The integrative design process understands that buildings, their components, and their context are interrelated. Whole building systems observe this...

The integrative design process understands that buildings, their components, and their context are interrelated. Whole-building systems observe this...

Human behavior and interaction with the building space plays a critical component in achieving holistic sustainability. Desired gains in energy effi...

Water used for landscaping and irrigation purposes accounts for close to 20% of a facility’s overall consumption and should be limited as much...

The vegetation on a planted roof removes fine particulates (PM), black carbon, and pollen out of the air, which lends well to incorporating solar pa...

The integrative design process understands that buildings, their components, and their use type and surroundings are interrelated. Involving all sta...

Meter costs can be grouped into three main categories: equipment costs, labor costs, and recurring costs. Since submetering systems can vary greatly...

One of the best ways to save energy is to measure and manage it. There are two basic methods for managing resource use: through improved resou...

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Planted Roof The decision of whether to install a planted roof should be considered o...

Lighting accounts for nearly 20% of the total electricity costs of commercial buildings in the United States.1 Effective lighting systems invol...

Typical Federal Office Building Potable Water UseA typical Federal office building with 200 employees uses about 3,000 gallons of water in one day...