This Little-Known Agency Has Billions to Make Federal Buildings Greener

A little-known U.S. agency is taking action to reduce carbon emissions from buildings, spending billions of dollars to test and implement new technologies and materials that reduce carbon emissions in federal buildings.

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 shared administrative responsibilities, including purchasing goods and services and overseeing many federal buildings.

Today, GSA manages one of the largest commercial real estate portfolios in the country, owning and leasing nearly 8,800 buildings spanning 370 million square feet, including offices, labs, warehouses and data centers. Now, the agency is racing to decarbonize both its construction and operations.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 directing the federal government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with buildings to meet that goal by 2045. U.S. buildings represent a huge climate opportunity. In terms of materials and operations, they account for about one-third of the nation’s emissions, according to the Department of Energy, DOE.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the largest climate investment in history, provided GSA with $3.4 billion to help decarbonize federal buildings. With this IRA funding, GSA is not only moving its portfolio toward net-zero emissions, but also de-risking newer carbon-reducing materials and technologies to drive broader market adoption, GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan told Canary Media.

More than $2 billion of that funding is earmarked for the purchase of common building materials, such as concrete, glass, steel and asphalt, with low embodied carbon — emissions created during the production and transportation of those materials. Last November, GSA announced that the funding would go to more than 150 construction projects across the U.S.

In addition, nearly $1 billion from the IRA will go toward evaluating and implementing new technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions from building operations. The agency tests these innovative technologies through an initiative called Green Proving Ground. Created in 2011, the program installs U.S. technologies in federal buildings, which are then evaluated by DOE national lab scientists to assess their performance in real-world conditions. Along the way, agencies share feedback with companies that make the technologies, which may not have the resources to conduct such extensive testing themselves.

By demonstrating these innovations in real-world settings, Green Proving Ground makes it easier for contractors—those 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 goes to this program, which is jointly administered by GSA and DOE.

To date, the Green Proving Ground program has evaluated 107 technologies, and 23 of them—including quadruple-pane super-insulated windows—are used in more than one-third of GSA’s government buildings.

On July 18, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, Carnahan announced that GSA will invest $9.6 million to install and evaluate a new group of 17 innovative technologies. Results are expected to be available in 2026.

“We’re really excited to figure out how to implement these solutions in our facilities,” Carnahan said.

The latest products include Sublime System’s low-carbon concrete; Brightcore Energy’s geothermal heat pumps, which can be installed in tight spaces in urban areas, such as basements; Lamarr.Ai’s drone-based infrared imaging system, which enables energy audits of building envelopes; Nostromo Energy’s modular ice thermal energy storage system; and Trane’s air-to-water heat pump, which further dispels the myth that the technology doesn’t work in freezing climates, operating efficiently even in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another innovation that Jetta Wong, senior climate adviser at GSA, cited is phase-change ceiling tiles, made by Armstrong World Industries. To maintain comfortable indoor temperatures, the tiles absorb heat when it’s hot and release heat when it’s cold, complementing HVAC systems. They’re drop-in technologies that can be installed anywhere you’d find typical ceiling tiles. “It’s a game-changer,” Wong said, because construction companies don’t need special training to install the tiles.

While Green Proving Ground is evaluating the technology, GSA is using most of the nearly $1 billion in funding to actually install improvements that clean up building operations. Those upgrades will affect about 40 million square feet, or about 20 percent of its portfolio, and include more conventional technologies like ultra-efficient heat pumps, insulation, LEDs and solar panels. The projects will help GSA electrify 100 government buildings, making 28 of them net-zero emissions.

Some buildings in the agency’s portfolio have already achieved the net-zero energy benchmark, Carnahan said. She pointed to the historic Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and the U.S. Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colo. After a major renovation completed in 2013, the 1918 building became the first GSA net-zero energy building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. About 200 GSA buildings are already all-electric, according to the agency.

Denver Federal Center, another GSA property, is on track to achieve net zero energy. The 35-building campus will use heat pumps that extract heat from the air and ground, use solar panels for on-site power, and better seal and insulate buildings to become more energy efficient. The Denver facility also has been a long-standing testing ground for technologies earlier in the Green Proving Ground program.

Looking ahead, GSA’s work to decarbonize buildings and make them more efficient likely won’t 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, under Democratic and Republican administrations, she explained.

“It makes sense to save money,” she said. “So as long as (green improvements) make economic sense, I’m sure they’ll continue.”

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