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Mabus on Green Contracting Standards: ‘We Can Do It Without Spending More Money’

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Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Photo: navy.mil

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus means business when it comes to getting building contractors to think green.

Starting this year, contractors who want to bid on Navy or Marine construction projects have to include an option to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold Standard, Federal News Radio reports.

And beginning in fiscal year 2013, the LEED Gold standard will become the way Navy building contractors will have to do business.

But perhaps even more surprising than those lofty goals, is Mabus’ pledge to do it “without spending any more money,” as he put it at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Annual Government Summit, according to Federal News Radio.

With LEED standards, “if you write the contracts correctly, you can do [them] for the same amount of money that we have budgeted for military construction,” Mabus added.

“One of the things we’re finding is that as we put these out, we are getting bids that, whether it’s for straight construction or for LEED Silver, LEED Gold, we can do the LEED Gold and spend no more money than we were otherwise spending. If contractors know going in … they are able to come in under the budget,” Mabus explained.

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