by Brianna Crandall — April 27, 2011—The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced April 21 that it will test and evaluate 16 emerging sustainable building technologies and practices in select federal facilities under its Green Proving Ground Program. Testing will determine the most effective technologies that may then be replicated on a wider-scale basis throughout the GSA inventory, with the goal of transforming markets for these technologies.
The technologies were selected as having the greatest potential from a pool of approximately 140 projects across GSA’s national portfolio that are currently implementing innovative or underutilized sustainable building technologies. Examples of the technologies chosen include wireless temperature sensors, electrochromic windows, high R-value windows, integrated lighting systems, thin-film photovoltaic panels, solar water heating with integrated photovoltaic panels, chilled beams, and nonchemical water treatment systems.
With support from the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, the Green Proving Ground Program will perform enhanced testing, monitoring, and evaluation on these selected technologies. Notable findings from all of the projects will be used to support the development of performance specifications for GSA’s real estate portfolio and other federal agencies. Additionally, testing these technologies will assist industry in deploying the technology and practices studied, notes GSA.
