Blue to Green

<p>The era of sustainable design and construction has come to the United States Air Force. Unfortunately it has yet to take full control of how the Air Force Civil Engineering (CE) community manages the design construction operation and maintenance of existing facilities. The rising costs of building materials and energy significantly impact the entire life-cycle costs of a building. With the large physical plant owned by the Air Force the sum of these costs is enormous. The prospect of diminishing funds to support facility maintenance and repair in order to recapitalize the aircraft fleet is very real. It is time for Air Force civil engineers to fully embrace the guiding principles behind sustainable design and incorporate them throughout the community. The smart application of the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards can and should be extended beyond just large Military Construction projects. The LEED Existing Buildings rating system can be used to facilitate the greening of how the CE community manages the existing Air Force physical plant as well as the Sustainment Restoration and Modernization project account.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>