GSA Holds Ceremony for its Fourth Annual Achievement Awards for Real Property InnovationAwards recognize real estate "best practices" developed by Federal agencies

GSA #9745

October 11, 2000
Contact: Malcolm Saldanha (202) 501-1231
Malcolm.Saldanha@gsa.gov

Washington, DC -- The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) held its fourth annual Achievement Award ceremony for Real Property Innovation on October 4, 2000, at the American Institute of Architects Building in Washington, DC.

The ceremony was led by Thurman M. Davis, Sr., Deputy Administrator of GSA, G. Martin ("Marty") Wagner, Associate Administrator for the Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP), and David Bibb, Deputy Associate Administrator for OGP's Office of Real Property.

The Real Property Innovation Awards were developed by the Office of Real Property to recognize the successes of the Federal real property community, to improve communications between real property professionals, and share the best policies and practices implemented by Federal agencies.

This year, 11 Federal agencies participated in the submission of 35 entries. This year's entries covered various categories which encompassed best practices in real estate policy, real property management, acquisition, construction, sustainable development, disposal, budget, performance, public-private partnerships, and many more.

The two winning entries, both in the best policy category, were selected by a panel of distinguished public and private sector experts from Canada and the U.S. A team from GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS) won for their entry "Building Green for the Future." The "Build Green" Team launched a comprehensive sustainable design strategy to incorporate sustainable principles (i.e., principles which are friendly to the environment) in all of PBS's business practices. The team members included: David B. Eakin, Donald R. Horn, Lee Salviski, and Debra W. Yap

A team from the Department of the Army won for their initiative to "Privatize Army Utilities Systems." The team developed a policy to privatize an existing inventory of 320 separate utility systems on over 100 bases throughout the United States. To date, 44 utility systems have been privatized with a goal to complete privatization actions by 2003. Team members consisted of: John Krajewski, Satish Sharma, William Eng, Richard Dubicki, Carey Klug, Regina Larrabee and Qaiser Toor.

As David Bibb of OGP's Office of Real Property stated at the ceremony, "It is our belief that by sharing these outstanding entries we will plant the seeds for future growth and enhancement of real property asset management and workplace excellence throughout the Government."
All of the 2000 entries will be published in a "Special Edition" of the Office of Real Property's POLICYSITE newsletter in Fall 2000. This will also be available on the following website: http://policyworks.gov/realproperty.