Recently adopted standards in the District of Columbia now require new buildings to meet LEED standards. That is, they must meet the Green Building Council’s energy-efficient, environmentally friendly requirements of building design and construction, operation and…
Category: Sustainability
Energy Savings Performance Contracts Leverage Scarce Federal Dollars
The GSA reinforced its role as a key partner in achieving President Obama’s greenhouse gas and energy efficiency goals in an announcement on June 11 in Lanham, Maryland. Agency Administrator Dan Tangherlini revealed a major Energy…
Many Winners in Federal Building Challenge
Competitors vie for neither lucrative NBA contracts nor sizable office bracket pools in GSA’s March Madness-style Federal Building Challenge. An annual competition between sustainable buildings around the country, the contest awards the winner only bragging rights…
District of Columbia Expands Benchmarking
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, commercial buildings account for nearly 50% of all building energy use and about 20% of total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. New York, Seattle, Boston, and a…
Better Buildings Bill Update
Thirty-two U.S. Senators stayed up all night on March 10, speaking non-stop to stir Congressional colleagues into action on climate change. Overnight talking points emphasized state-by-state economic damage such as crop losses from California droughts, coastal…
Energy Efficiency Initiative Finds Broad Support
Even before the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, Congressional Republicans and Democrats sought common ground over energy efficiency. Most of the bills and other efforts have stalled or struck out, including the broadly supported but so…
A LEED System for Tenants: LEED-CI
When the new Department of the Interior (DOI) headquarters opened in 1936, employees enjoyed the latest in building amenities and technologies: a gymnasium, movable steel office partitions, a soda fountain, and the first air conditioning system…
GSA’s Green Proving Ground
If government agencies could make New Year’s resolutions, improving energy and water efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars would be good ones. And some of the support needed to keep up their resolve would come from a…
President Doubles Renewable Energy Targets
If less greenhouse gas pollution and more jobs and energy independence are on your holiday list, President Obama unwrapped an early gift for you. On December 5, he signed a memorandum to implement the next step…
GSA Recommends LEED and Green Globes
The wait is over. For 17 months, the GSA has been studying third-party green building certification systems, as required every five years by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). In the first such…