- Published by Kathleen Turco on Monday, May 7th, 2012 under Certification,Collaboration,Committee,Federal building,High performance,Policy,Real property,Strategy,Sustainability,Vision
GSA OGP’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings (www.gsa.gov/hpgb) has just released its Green Building Certification Systems review report. This report is the first step in an extensive review process — including a public comment period – that evaluates tools that could help federal agencies meet their goals for maintaining and constructing more sustainable and efficient buildings. The findings of this process will help government agencies meet federal requirements for green construction, save taxpayer dollars and meet the goals of President Obama’s Executive Order on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance (EO 13514). The full report is available at http://www.gsa.gov/gbcertificationreview and the press release is available here.
This report also will be a major topic at the second Green Building Advisory Committee (GBAC) meeting which is coordinated by the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings in accordance with The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The GBAC will be held on May 9, 2012 from 9:30am to 4:00 pm at 1331 F Street, NW, Suite 800 in Washington, DC. It is open to the public, as a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) meeting. Agenda and meeting materials will be posted on the GBAC site. Questions about the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings or the GBAC may be sent to greenbuildings@gsa.gov. We look forward to your feedback and comments.
In the Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP) of GSA, we have been working closely with Kshemendra Paul and industry partners through the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), a non-profit, public/private partnership focused on IT in government. OGP’s strategic direction is to ensure that government-wide policies encourage agencies to develop and utilize the best, most cost effective management practices for the conduct of their specific programs, and information technology is one of the areas that our policymaking authority covers.
Together, we have identified a gap in our knowledge of how to integrate standards into the acquisition process to better provide capabilities, such as data correlation. To address this, we are working with ACT-IAC to write a white paper on the topic that should help establish the best practices for standards-based acquisition that are essential for deploying interoperable technology solutions.
The intent of this whitepaper is to provide the perspective of the industry partners and vendors who work with the federal government on standards-based activities. The whitepaper should also include recommendations with activities for what needs to be accomplished to close the standards gap as well as what the core set of technical standards should be. Finally, we also hope to better describe how the federal government can make existing acquisition processes more simplified and transparent.
Federal acquisition policies must facilitate and reward collaboration between the government and industry that results in collective development of tools and technologies. By closing this standard gap and then aligning our acquisition requirements across the federal government, we can:
- Leverage existing capabilities that the federal government already possesses;
- Maximize our purchasing power in acquiring new products;
- Better manage the risk inherent in integrating common solutions throughout the federal government; and
- Make purchasing decisions that are responsive to new and evolving standards.
We encourage you to consider get involved in this effort. ACT-IAC is seeking responses to this survey from the public through May 4, 2012 at 5 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact Jonathan D. Addelston, Co-Chair, Information Sharing Committee of the Collaboration and Transformation Shared Interest Group, ACT-IAC.
- Kathleen Turco, Associate Administrator, GSA Office of Government-wide Policy
(Kathleen also serves on the Executive Board of the American Council for Technology)
GSA and the Building Owners and Managers Association International collaborated with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a technical guide titled “Energy Efficiency Guide for Existing Commercial Buildings: Technical Implementation”. The guide, the second in a series, was developed to provide clear and easily understood technical guidance to building engineers and managers for energy upgrades, retrofits, and renovations to increase a building’s energy efficiency.
Kevin Kampschroer, Director of OGP’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings (OFHPGB), and Kinga Porst, Sustainability and Green Buildings Program Advisor for the OFHPGB and Past President of NCC ASHRAE, served not only on the project monitoring committee but also as the GSA liaisons for the guide development. The research, reporting and training provided by OFHPGB in response to Executive Order 13514, “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance”, is shared with government agencies and stakeholders to promote leading practices and technologies for building efficiencies and sustainable practices for today and tomorrow’s federal buildings. The guide can be purchased online through the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) website.
And the good news from OGP just keeps getting better. GSA’s per diem mobile application is now available for download on Android phones, in addition to versions for the iPhone and Blackberry. Both the iPhone and Blackberry versions have had several thousand downloads since they were released in August, and have proven to be a popular way for travelers on the go to access the rates without having to plug into a computer. For more information and for links to download all the versions, visit www.gsa.gov/mobileperdiem.
Also, check out the per diem rates that are just one click away from GSA’s home page, www.gsa.gov, and listed under “Most Requested Links.” In fact, it is 58% of the reason that the public visits the GSA website. Get your mobile app today!
