by Shane Henson — June 13, 2014—The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) recently announced plans to leverage Green Button technology to save energy within buildings and shrink costs across the federal government. The agency launched this initiative in partnership with industry leaders following a 2013 presidential memorandum directing federal agencies to strengthen efforts to use renewable energy and manage energy usage more efficiently.
Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in a user-friendly format. Through Green Button, users can also learn about their energy use and its environmental impact, conduct virtual energy audits that can cut costs and speed up retrofitting, and get customized tips for saving money on their energy bills.
The GSA hopes that through using Green Button, it can help meet the 2013 presidential memorandum that set a new target for federal agencies to increase their consumption of renewable energy to 20 percent of their total amount of electric energy use by 2020. GSA, along with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has worked to launch a Green Button pilot program demonstrating integrated Green Button energy analytics. The pilot built upon earlier 2012 GSA energy management activities that saved $16 million across 100 GSA-owned buildings, GSA says.
“Creating a more sustainable government is vital to our mission and drives the agency’s priorities,” said Dan Tangherlini, head of the GSA. “As one of the largest real estate managers in the country, adopting Green Button technology across our real estate portfolio allows us to improve building performance and save taxpayer dollars.”
