by Shane Henson — June 27, 2012—The U.S. General Services Administration, the federal agency responsible for improving the government’s workplace and helping other federal agencies meet their goals by managing assets, maximizing acquisitions, preserving historic property, and implementing technology solutions, has demonstrated measurable progress in its own mission of making the more than 9,600 federally owned or leased buildings it manages more sustainable.
The GSA recently released its sustainability and energy performance scorecard for fiscal year 2011 showing the agency continues to cut costs through energy efficiency and reducing pollution. Using the scorecard as a benchmark, GSA says it will continue to identify and track the best opportunities to make further progress toward meeting its sustainability and energy performance goals. Under Executive Order 13514, President Barack Obama directed federal agencies to lead by example in clean energy and to meet a range of energy, water, pollution, and waste reduction targets.
According to the GSA, it has partnered with industry to make federal buildings more energy-efficient through the use of innovative technologies such as solar panels, advanced lighting systems, geothermal technology, wind power, and low-flow plumbing systems. As a result, in fiscal year 2011, GSA says it reduced greenhouse gas emissions from federal buildings that it directly pays utilities for by 20.3% relative to its fiscal year 2008 baseline—well ahead of its targeted reduction of 10% and well on its way to meeting its fiscal year 2020 target of 28.7%. GSA now derives 15.8% of the electricity used in these facilities from renewable electricity sources, including 2.5% from new sources. Additionally, GSA has reduced water intensity by nearly 13.7% against a target of 6%, and reduced energy intensity by 19.2% against an 18% target, it says.
Since buildings don’t become more energy efficient on their own, the GSA says it recently released a set of key skills that federal building managers and contractors need to operate federal facilities at peak efficiency. These core competencies ensure that GSA goes beyond buildings themselves to the people that operate them, working with key industry associations and other federal agencies to create a next-generation facilities management workforce. Green buildings and their efficient operation are key to achieving GSA’s goal to reduce the operating costs and footprint of the federal government. Federal buildings operations personnel will be required to demonstrate these core competencies by June of 2013, adds the agency.
