By Sherrie Gruder, UW-Madison SHWEC

On April 11, 2006, Governor Jim Doyle signed Executive Order 145 Relating to Conserve Wisconsin and the Creation of High Performance Green Building Standards and Energy Conservation for State Facilities and Operations. This green building executive order (EO) is part of the Governor’s Conserve Wisconsin agenda released last August. It is designed to have the State lead by example and be a model of energy conservation for the rest of the state.

The Green Building EO contains provisions on energy and green building that impact both new and existing state and university buildings. Governor Doyle’s Green Building EO, while not requiring certification to the US Green Building Council's LEED Green Building Rating System, contains minimum performance standards based on LEED tools and approaches, as well as measurement and reporting requirements. This will enable state staff to design and build new buildings and upgrade existing buildings to be high performance green buildings. The EO will likely have significant benefits: meaningful improvements in the energy performance of state and University buildings, the costs to operate and maintain them and the health of those who work and study in them. On a broader scale, this is good for Wisconsin business, the environment, the economy and the community.

Specific highlights of the Green Building Executive Order are:
new buildings are to be designed to use 30% less energy than code
· energy use in state building shall be reduced by 10% by FY08 and 20% by FY10 in accordance with the recent state energy bill
· DOA shall establish and adopt guidelines based on LEED for New Construction and LEED for Existing Buildings within 6 months
· Any project that requests certification to LEED as part of the initial project request will be support by DOA
· DOA will establish guidelines that address sustainable operation and maintenance of existing buildings including green purchasing, green cleaning, waste reduction and recycling, pollution prevention, energy and water efficiency, and light pollution

On each project DOA shall use the following green building approaches and minimum performance standards including: integrated design and green goal setting charrettes, energy modeling for buildings over 20,000SF; commissioning and retrocommissioning; review at completion of SD’s, DD’s and CD’s that the design intent of the green goals are incorporated in the documents and are being met; minimum IAQ approaches to construction; and, minimum ventilation requirements that meet the current version of ASHRAE (now ASHRAE 62.1-2004)
· DOA will pursue demonstration projects of PV and other renewable energy technologies at state facilities including the Capitol and Executive Residence
· Performance data and benchmarking shall be established and there will be annual reporting of progress and outcomes to the Governor’s office and State Building Commission