This Research Report considers strategies for achieving an integrated approach to federal buildings programs based on a “whole buildings” conceptual framework. In an effort to pro-mote such a framework as the foundation for federal build-ings policy, members of the buildings industry and trades, related industries, researchers, and other advocates have iden-tified five specific objectives that can foster an integrated approach. The strategies, objectives, and the federal policy framework have been developed through careful study of cur-rent federal policies and programs against the backdrop of the critical role that buildings play in the U.S. economy and the potential contributions that the whole buildings approach can make to the well-being of the nation.

The paper is the product of a series of coordinated efforts by whole buildings advocates. REPP commissioned it in response to a request from the members of the Passive Solar Industries Council (PSIC). PSIC is a consortium of architects, builders, designers, building materials and product manufacturers, con-sultants, educators, engineers, utility companies and organi-zations, and individuals with diverse but related interests.

PSIC was formed in 1980 because no other group was posi-tioned to represent whole buildings in the trades and field. To pave the way for this Research Report, PSIC commissioned an Overview of the Building-Related Programs in the Federal Sector, which provided a snapshot of the current federal build-ings programs.3 That report concluded that few federal pro-grams consider buildings as integrated systems, and that those that do are underfunded and generally underpromoted. It also noted that the scattered federal build-ings programs are not coordinated through an overall federal buildings policy, let alone one based on the whole buildings approach. The earlier report showed how things are, and this Research Report looks at how things should be.

As an aid to decisionmakers who can help implement the whole buildings approach, the paper starts with a description of the technical nature of buildings and building energy con-sumption. It goes on to build the case for long-term, stable federal leadership in whole buildings policy. The case for fed-eral leadership emphasizes the important and badly under-rated role of buildings in the U.S. economy, the financial impact of buildings on the American people, and the nature of the buildings industry.

Table of Contents Next section