ABSTRACT Starting in the 1970s, and most notably from the 1990s to 2025, the US federal government served as a market leader in demonstrating green building design and performance with its own facilities and thereby influencing the market through “leadership by example.” Over the decades, the government achieved measurable progress in reducing building energy and water use, while saving significantly on utility bills and maintaining occupant satisfaction. This article draws on the author's long‐term participation in this federal movement, supplemented by many additional sources, to outline the strategies behind the success of these policies and where they fell short. Strategies discussed include providing bipartisan leadership; creating and promoting showcase facilities; drawing on internal and external expertise; convening, educating and recognizing agency champions and practitioners; creating standards and frameworks for implementation; leveraging financial resources; testing innovations; and greening military properties. The author discusses how and why these approaches worked, instances where they confronted barriers and how key players worked to overcome them. The analysis reveals a picture of a richly complex, iterative process, not strictly driven from above (leadership) versus below (staff) or from inside versus outside the government, but as a learning process of continuous interaction and advancement. In the wake of the downsizing or elimination of many of these programs by the second Trump administration and the exit of many of their champions and practitioners from the government, the article concludes with a discussion of challenges to reviving US federal green building and posits approaches to overcome these challenges. This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Governance and Regulation. Sustainable Energy > Energy Efficiency. Cities and Transportation > Buildings.
Ken Sandler (2026) studied this question.