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With the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (‘the Act’), signed into law on February 17, the federal government is making an effort to re-invigorate our economy and improve our infrastructure. There are over $140 billion in infrastructure improvements covering a wide range of projects: three general categories should be very interesting to green building material suppliers. These include: federal building revitalizations, educational building renovations, and tax incentives for making homes more energy efficient.

Becoming familiar with how these provisions will drive business or allow dealers to develop new business is critical to becoming a part of the future. Here is a breakdown on each area and the green products or green building requirements.

Federal Building Revitalization
The Act provides the General Services Administration (GSA) with $4.5 billion to be spent on “construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings for projects that will create the greatest impact on energy efficiency and conservation.” The GSA has already established that USGBC’s LEED rating system must be used as a design criterion for all capital projects. Each project must have a goal of Silver certification. The GSA has developed the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings to assist with the coordination of transitioning the federal building stock to high-performance green buildings. It is unclear which projects will be seeking USGBC’s LEED-New Construction (NC) or LEED-Existing Building (EB), but learning which products are listed in these checklists and making them available could certainly drive some business to your counter.

Education Building Renovations
The federal government has provided close to $8.8 billion to the nation’s governors – who are strapped by low tax revenues – to ensure they will not need to increase taxes or moth-ball vital improvements to schools. These funds can be used for school modernization, renovation, and repair of elementary, secondary, and higher education facilities; new construction, however, will not be eligible. These projects will need to incorporate a number of green features; and their design, construction, and operations/maintenance will need to be in compliance with one of the recognized green building standards (LEED, CHPS, or Green Globes).

Tax Incentives for Making Homes More Energy-Efficient
Within the tax provisions of the Act are numerous avenues for homeowners and homebuilders to receive tax credits for energy-efficient improvements made to existing or newly built homes. For homeowners, these improvements can include energy-efficient windows, doors, insulation, roofing, HVAC systems, geo-thermal heat pumps, water heaters, biomass, solar energy systems, small wind energy systems, or fuel cells. For each product category, Energy Star – the joint program of the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – maintains specific tax credit language. The ‘Tax Credit Specification’ will further detail the performance measures required to earn the tax credit for each product installed.

For homebuilders, tax credits can be achieved on new home construction through the inclusion of energy-efficient heating and cooling measures. These are not new tax credits but many builders may still be unaware of this incentive. Recent studies have proven that energy-efficiency updates to homes are a wise investment for the current residents and for future sales. Homes with above average energy efficiency can certainly be more appealing than homes without these improvements. I know from living in Portland, OR, the majority of existing homes could be vastly improved by simply insulating them. A second wave of improvements could come in the form of improved windows and doors. To learn more about these programs please review the details at www.energystar.gov.

These are a few of the initiatives included in ‘the Act’ that will further develop green building industries while improving our government, educational, and residential infrastructure; and lessening our dependence on fossil fuel derived energy and heat. This is the chance for building product dealers to learn about green opportunities, educate their employees about these opportunities, and connect with customers seeking to improve their buildings with green products.

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Forest Products Solutions provides companies with the services and tools to improve the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of FSC-certified and related green building products. To learn more about Terry Campbell and Forest Products Solutions go to: www.forestproductssolutions.com or visit his blog at http.blog.auxinews.com.