Energy Consumption Evaluation of U.S. Navy LEED-Certified Buildings

As of October 1, 2008, the Department of the Navy established the requirement that all new buildings constructed for the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) obtain a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The goal of this requirement is to comply with Executive Order (EO) 13423, which mandates that all government departments reduce energy consumption by 30% by 2015. This research analyzes whether the 11 LEED-certified USN buildings have achieved the expected energy consumption savings. Energy data from LEED-certified buildings was compared with other USN and USMC non-certified buildings of comparable size, usage, and location. Statistical analysis shows that 9 of 11 LEED buildings did not achieve a 30% savings in electricity consumption, while seven of nine met the water consumption savings requirements set in place by EO 13423. Furthermore, this research concludes that the majority of the USN LEED-certified buildings actually showed more electricity consumption than the national averages as published by the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey.