Project Background

GSA’s National Capital Region (NCR) High Performance Facilities Branch (HPFB) collaborated across regional Public Buildings Service (PBS) business lines to develop and execute a new approach for incorporating sustainability and energy performance into all PBS day-to-day activities in order to meet:  PBS Order 1098.1 Sustainability Performance (GSA employees only).

NCR is made up of large, complex, historic facilities, and campuses - over 91M square feet across 582 assets, including the White House, numerous federal agency headquarters, NOAA satellite monitoring, and FDA laboratories. The workforce is comprised of over 1,000 employees across seven business lines. Achieving energy goals has historically been challenging due to redundancy requirements, suboptimal systems for both cross-business line and cross-agency collaboration, and tenants’ 24/7 mission-critical operations.

To drive energy savings across NCR and institutionalize cross-business-line collaboration, HPFB formally established the NCR Energy Council. HPFB chairs the Council, which interprets mandates and agency performance measures for nontechnical staff and serves as a vehicle for collaboration and problem-solving where obstacles and opportunities on energy performance are identified. Focus areas include NCR’s $2B energy savings performance contract (ESPC) program, demand response, and emerging and sustainable technologies. HPFB’s development of the Council served as a model for the agency-wide framework that became PBS Order 1098.1 Sustainability Performance.

Sustainability Strategies

In January 2022, GSA’s regional offices were asked to develop greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction plans. HPFB leveraged the existing NCR regional energy policy expanding it to include a wider range of activities (e.g., inclusion of refrigerants, a greater emphasis on reductions of fossil fuel use) and increased the number of organizations with measurable commitments, milestones, and deadlines included in the GHG plan. HPFB’s education and outreach support expanded the workforce’s understanding of GHG, agency policies, federal mandates, and opportunities to improve regional performance. The resulting regional Greenhouse Gas Plan articulated specific roles, responsibilities, and commitments of every PBS business line.

This served as a model for GSA and in March 2022, HPFB was asked to spearhead the development of a GSA-wide Order on Sustainability Performance. In January 2023, GSA’s PBS Commissioner issued the agency-wide Sustainability Performance Order directing the development of regional plans that would include roles and responsibilities for every business line across the country.

Results

• Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs)
  • NCR’s ESPC program is 4 times larger than the GSA’s largest region.
  • For the over $2B (and growing) portfolio of ESPC contracts, HPFB launched a new effort to engage building teams, contract staff, and asset managers to incorporate ESPC options into long range capital planning.
  • HPFB is currently saving over 516,000 MMbtus of energy and over 182,000 kgals of water through ESPCs and is leveraging performance contracts to electrify over 25M GSF of federal space.
• Energy Management, Revenue Generation, and Renewables
  • Peak demand was reduced to cut utility charges (“Cutting Costs with Curtailment”): reduced peak Summer electric load an average of 13% (~$1.1M utility cost reduction).
  • Usage was reduced when the grid was vulnerable (“Emergency Demand Response”): generated +$1.4 Million in rebates for energy projects by reducing +83 MW during Demand Response events (21.8% improvement since January 2021).
  • Unoccupied buildings were powered down (“How Low Can You Go?”): during the 2023 President’s day holiday, 96% of tracked buildings had significant reduction compared to just 65% when the program launched in November 2022.
  • HPFB sold RECs for over $560,000 and collected an additional $880,000 in energy rebates by working closely with rebate providers and ODC project managers.
• Electric Vehicle Support
  • HPFB developed a process and tools to plan, design, construct, maintain, and monitor electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) installations.
  • In April 2022, HPFB trained 20 senior project managers and over 150 building management employees.
  • HPFB provided technical support to project managers, building managers, asset managers, realty specialists, and lease administration managers.
  • HPFB’s approach was replicated by GSA’s National Center for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and issued as national guidance for all GSA Regions.
• Building Operations
  • The focus on energy and sustainability was strengthened via monthly data-driven meetings with 15-45 building operations staff.
  • HPFB prioritized outreach and engagement of over 500 facility employees and 120 contractor employees to reduce energy/water use.
  • Contractors’ accountability increased through monthly reporting from 23% of facilities in 2021 to 63% through March of 2023; 100% expected by FY 2024.
• Sustainable Buildings
  • HPFB worked with building managers and project managers to increase the number of buildings compliant with the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings (GP). Since 2021, NCR GP-compliant buildings increased by 7.3% (an increase of 12 buildings) totaling 27% of buildings and GP-compliant gross square footage (GSF) increased by 16.5% (an increase of 10.2 million square feet) totaling 49% of GSF.
• Regional Web-based Energy and Sustainability Portal
  • HPFB created the Building Energy and Analysis Spreadsheet Tool (BEAST), which enables more granular and customizable data sets than the Energy Usage Analysis System (EUAS). It also enables the development of individual building targets and comparison against current performance.
• Energy and Water Reduction
  • TheNCR Portfolio has seen a 22.4% Gal/GSF reduction in water use, a 17.3% reduction in GHG emissions, and a 6.4% BTU/GSF reduction in energy usage since 2021 - the largest reduction nationwide in BTUs for GSA’s national portfolio.
• Emergency Demand Response Program
  • 25 buildings participate to protect the power grid when demand is high and at risk of wide scale disruption or failure. In an emergency drill event held on July 20, 2023, buildings reduced electricity use by over 10MW in less than 30 minutes.

Back to Stories