Join us at Greenbuild's Green Business Summit!

On Thursday August 12 at 11:00 AM EDT at USGBC's Green Business Summit! Beth will be moderating a panel celebrating the incredible work GSA has done over 25 years to build the business case for green building. The panel will feature Kevin Kampschroer - General Services Administration, Kinga Porst Hydras - General Services Administration and Andrew Mayock - Executive Office of the President.

To register for the summit click here

The General over Services Administration (GSA) owns and leases over 370 million SF in 9,600 buildings nationwide. Though vision and thoughtful investment, GSA has created and manages one of the largest portfolios of sustainable buildings in the world. Over 25 years of commitment and research they have built a formidable business case for high-performance and LEED buildings across numerous administrations, multiple building types and climate zones.

In 1996, GSA explored the question: “what investment would it take to green the Federal Workplace?” in their landmark “Green Cost Study”. By 2003, GSA had incorporated LEED certification into its design, construction, and leasing programs. The investment necessary to support this commitment was analyzed in GSA’s “LEED Cost Study”.

Fast forward to 2018’s “The Impact of High-Performance Buildings” which examined the performance of 200 buildings in GSA’s portfolio. The study found that GSA’s efforts had paid off: their high-performance buildings function more efficiently than legacy stock counterparts and operate better than industry benchmarks. In short, GSA’s high-performance buildings save energy, save water, cost less to operate, produce less waste, and have more satisfied occupants compared with typical buildings.

The return on GSA’s investment in energy saving measures alone resulted in nearly $89M in savings in 2019. Yet energy and water efficiency measures represent but one dimension of GSA’s high-performance building R&D.

GSA’s research, piloting and policy leadership continue to today, facilitating federal sustainability policy, developing best practices for high-performance buildings, recommending third-party sustainable building standards, and maintaining sustainability tools that serve the federal government, civic organizations, and the private sector. This session will bring together veterans of GSA’s high-performance building work with the Federal CSO to reflect on effective approaches to build a multi-dimensional business case for high-performance building and a look ahead to the what’s next in the Biden Administration and beyond.