This little-known agency has billions to make federal buildings green
With nearly $3.4 billion from the climate law, the U.S. General Services Administration is working to slash emissions from building operations and construction.
An under-the-radar U.S. agency is pushing efforts to slash emissions from buildings, marshaling billions of dollars to test and deploy new carbon-cutting technologies and materials at properties owned by the federal government.
The U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, was founded 75 years ago to help the national government save money by streamlining operations. It centralized common administrative responsibilities, including purchasing goods and services and overseeing many federal buildings.
Today, the GSA manages one of the largest commercial real estate portfolios in the country. It owns and leases nearly 8,800 buildings, covering 370 million square feet, including offices, laboratories, warehouses, and data centers. Now, the agency is racing to decarbonize both their construction and operations.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 directing the federal government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with its edifices to hit that target by 2045. U.S. buildings present a huge climate opportunity; in their materials and operations, they account for about a third of the country’s emissions, according to the Department of Energy, or DOE.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate investment in history, provided the GSA with $3.4 billion to help decarbonize federal buildings. With this IRA funding, the GSA is not only pushing its own portfolio toward net-zero but is also derisking newer carbon-cutting materials and technologies to drive broader market adoption, GSA administrator Robin Carnahan told Canary Media.
More than $2 billion of this funding is for buying common construction materials, such as concrete, glass, steel, and asphalt, with low amounts of embodied carbon — the emissions produced by making and shipping the stuff. Last November, the GSA announced the funding would flow to more than 150 construction projects across the U.S.
In addition, almost $1 billion of the IRA dollars will go toward evaluating and deploying emerging technologies that can slash carbon emissions from building operations. The agency puts these innovative technologies to the test through an initiative called Green Proving Ground. Established in 2011, the program installs American-made technologies at federal buildings, which scientists at the DOE’s national laboratories then evaluate to gauge their performance under real-world conditions. Along the way, the agencies share feedback with the companies making the technologies, which may not have the resources to do such extensive testing themselves.
By demonstrating these innovations in real settings, Green Proving Ground makes it easier for contractors — the ones who typically decide which energy-saving technologies to install — to see their value, Carnahan said. Of the nearly $1 billion in IRA funding, $30 million is going to this program, which is jointly administered by the GSA and the DOE.
So far, 107 technologies have been evaluated through Green Proving Ground, and 23 of them — including superinsulated quad-pane windows — have been harnessed in more than a third of GSA’s portfolio of government-owned buildings.
On July 18, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, Carnahan announced that the GSA will invest $9.6 million to install and evaluate a new cohort of 17 innovative technologies, with results expected to be available in 2026.
“We’re really excited to figure out how to deploy these in our facilities,” Carnahan said.
The latest selectees include Sublime System’s low-carbon concrete; Brightcore Energy’s geothermal heat pumps, which can be installed in tight urban spots, such as basements; Lamarr.Ai’s drone-based infrared imaging, which conducts energy audits on buildings’ shells; Nostromo Energy’s modular ice-based thermal energy storage; and Trane’s air-to-water heat pump, which further blasts the myth that the tech doesn’t work in frigid climes by operating efficiently down to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Another innovation that Jetta Wong, GSA’s senior adviser on climate, called out is the phase-change ceiling tile made by Armstrong World Industries. To keep indoor temperatures comfortable, the tiles absorb heat when it’s hot and release heat when it’s cold, supplementing HVAC systems. They’re a drop-in technology that can be used anywhere typical ceiling tiles would be. “That’s a game changer,” Wong said, because construction companies don’t need special training to install the tiles.
While Green Proving Ground evaluates tech, the GSA is using most of the nearly $1 billion in funding to actually install upgrades that clean up building operations. These updates will impact about 40 million square feet, or about 20 percent of its portfolio, and feature more conventional tech like uber-efficient heat pumps, insulation, LEDs, and solar panels. Through the projects, the GSA will electrify 100 government buildings, achieving net-zero emissions for 28 of them.
Some of the buildings in the agency’s portfolio have already reached the net-zero benchmark, Carnahan said. She pointed to the historic Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado. With an extensive retrofit completed in 2013, the 1918 structure became the GSA’s first net-zero building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. About 200 GSA buildings are already all-electric, according to the agency.
The Denver Federal Center, another GSA property, is on its way to net-zero. The 35-building campus will harness heat pumps that pull thermal energy from the air and the ground, utilize solar panels for on-site power, and better seal and insulate buildings to become more energy lean. The Denver site is also a long-standing test bed for earlier-stage technologies in the Green Proving Ground program.
Looking ahead, the GSA’s work decarbonizing buildings and making them more efficient is unlikely to change even if former President Donald Trump is reelected in November, according to Carnahan. The agency has been reducing energy use in buildings for 35 years, throughout Democratic and Republican administrations, she explained.
“It makes sense to save money,” she said. “So as long as [green upgrades] make economic sense, I’m sure they’re going to keep happening.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline This little-known agency has billions to make federal buildings green on Jul 28, 2024.