Improved Energy Management in the Facility Design Process Should Reduce Operating Costs for DOD

GAO reported on the Department of Defense (DOD) effort to design energy-efficient buildings for military use and the need for improved procedures in this regard.

GAO found that energy management methods used by DOD in the design process do not ensure that the most economical, energy-efficient, new buildings are being built for military use. While DOD has developed energy guidelines, set energy usage objectives, and required energy analyses of designs to reduce energy usage in facilities, these actions are not ensuring that energy reduction goals are being met. GAO found that: (1) energy budgets do not provide a means for determining whether design goals have been met; (2) energy guidelines are inconsistent among the services, and the Army and the Navy implement conservation requirements differently; (3) energy analyses are not always submitted by the architect-engineer, those received are not being adequately reviewed, and the Army and Navy construction agencies are not ensuring that errors in them are corrected; and (4) the Army and the Navy are not always ensuring that firms hired have the expertise needed to design energy-efficient facilities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: James G. Mitchell Team: General Accounting Office: Procurement, Logistics, and Readiness Division Phone: (202) 275-8676