Dive summary:

• Told by Congress to show that its green-building program are a good idea, the Department of Defense (DoD) started by asking the National Research Council to vet the concept, and the academy now says it agrees that requiring LEED Silver or the equivalent for new construction and large renovations makes sense on paper.
• That does not, however, prove the theory works, and the council says the DoD should do at least three years of measurements on actual performance to see if it matches the design goals in each building constructed to the LEED Silver standard or an equivalent level.
• Defense also needs to make sure its people are trained on how to get the most out of energy-efficient systems if it is going to get what it pays for in environmental performance in its buildings, the council says.

From the article:

Based on a review of empirical studies related to energy-efficiency and green building standards, the report concludes that green building certification systems such as LEED offer frameworks for successfully reducing energy and water use in buildings. ...