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, clea ...

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 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.

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 branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

(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 (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 Washi ...

(NAVFAC), and

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.” 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 a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. Building informatio ...

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 National Institute of Building Sciences through funding support from the DOD, the NAVFAC Engineering Innovation and Criteria Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the

, the

U.S. General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...

(GSA), the

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (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
Building engineering Building technology Architecture websites Online databases Web portals Building information modeling