The Whole Building Design Guide or WBDG is guidance in the United States, described by the

Federal Energy Management Program The United States Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) promotes energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy resources at federal sites, helping agencies save energy, save taxpayer dollars, and demonstrate leadership with responsible, cl ...

as "a complete internet resource to a wide range of building-related design guidance, criteria and technology", and meets the requirements in guidance documents for

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...

13123. The WBDG is based on the premise that to create a successful high-performance building, one must apply an integrated design and team approach in all phases of a project, including planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance. The WBDG is managed by the

National Institute of Building Sciences The National Institute of Building Sciences is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that identifies and resolves problems and potential issues in the built environment throughout the United States. Its creation was authorized by the U.S. Con ...

History

The WBDG was initially designed to serve

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

(DOD) construction programs. A 2003 DOD memorandum named WBDG the “sole portal to design and construction criteria produced by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

(USACE),

Naval Facilities Engineering Command The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) is the United States Navy's engineering systems command, providing the Navy and United States Marine Corps with facilities and expeditionary expertise. NAVFAC is headquartered at the Wash ...

(NAVFAC), and U.S. Air Force.” Since then, WBDG has expanded to serve all building industry professionals. The majority of its 500,000 monthly users are from the private sector. The WBDG draws information from the Construction Criteria Base and a privately owned database run by Information Handling Services. A significant amount of the Whole Building Design Guide content is organized by three categories: Design Guidance, Project Management, and Operations and Maintenance. It is structured to provide WBDG visitors first a broad understanding then increasingly specific information more targeted towards building industry professionals. The WBDG is the resource that federal agencies look to for policy and technical guidance on Federal High Performance and Sustainable Buildings In addition, the WBDG contains online tools, the original Construction Criteria Base,

Building Information Modeling Building information modeling (BIM) is an approach involving the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets and facilities. BIM is supported by vario ...

guides and libraries, a database of select case studies, federal mandates and other resources. The WBDG also provides over 70 online continuing education courses for architects and other building professionals, free of charge.

Development

Development of the WBDG is a collaborative effort among federal agencies, private sector companies, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. The WBDG web site maintained by the

through funding support from the DOD, the NAVFAC Engineering Innovation and Criteria Office,

, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(NASA), and the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

(DOE), and the assistance of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC). A Board of Direction and an Advisory Committee consisting of representatives from over 25 participating federal agencies guide the development of the WBDG.

References

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External links

Whole Building Design GuideNational Institute of Building Sciences
National Institute of Building Sciences Building technology Architecture websites Online databases Web portals Building information modeling