Green Neighborhood process: Energy conservation through collaboration

Traditional military family housing acquisition, design, construction procedures have resulted in the procurement of low-end, tract-type housing in neighborhoods that are not energy or resource efficient. In response to this need for greater energy and environmental awareness in the planning, development, and operations of military family housing facilities, the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories have developed the Green Neighborhood/Cool Communities (GN/CC) project. The GN/CC project is designed to develop a prototypical process for constructing family housing neighborhoods that meet the daily needs of the military family while minimizing negative environmental impacts and reducing the general energy consumption of the facilities. A multidisciplinary design team is assembled to integrate current methodologies and technologies that focus on life-cycle costs, the reduction of negative environmental impacts, energy conservation, and quality of life improvements in military family housing. Results indicate that the integrated design approach yields increased building energy and resource efficiency at competitive costs.