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My first thought when I discovered a new 2.4 million-square-foot federal building is striving for LEED Gold certification in Northern Virginia was “That building is way too big to be ‘green’.”

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new $1.8 billion headquarters building will consolidate 8,500 employees from seven separate buildings into one (gigantic) structure.

On paper, this building is pretty snazzy. It has a heating and cooling system that uses special chilled beams that use cold water to absorb heat so the office stays comfortable. Low-VOC paints, carpet backings and finishes will be used throughout, and the building has a one-acre vegetative roof over its central utility plant.

But any building big enough to require its own utility plant that’s getting LEED certification gives me pause. Sure, it’s going to use less energy on paper, but what about when it has 8,500 people milling around in it, leaving on lights and messing with the thermostat?

It would be interesting to find out how much energy each of the seven buildings were using compared to this new big facility. Consolidating into one big facility could very well mean less energy consumption if the other facilities were old and inefficient.

I’d also imagine (though I don’t know for sure) that consolidating to one building might increase the distance folks are driving to get to work. Before, the seven facilities were scattered throughout our nation’s capital. Now everyone will be driving to one place that might not be as close as their former office. Still, NGA is looking into offering shuttle service to its employees, which could take away some of that carbon footprint.

Obviously, we need big buildings for certain things. We also need to figure out ways to make them big without making them energy hogs. The Oregon Sustainability Center, while more modestly sized at 150,000 square feet, already faces big challenges is in its quest to be a Living Building. I can only imagine trying to go net-zero at a place like the new NGA headquarters.