GSA Looking for its First Chief Greening Officer
<p>The U.S. General Services Administration has created the new position of Chief Greening Officer in a bid to move forward President Barack Obama's federal sustainability agenda. It also said Monday it has moved its Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings to the Office of Governmentwide Policy.</p>
The U.S. General Services Administration has created the new position of chief greening officer in a bid to move forward President Barack Obama's federal sustainability agenda.
The chief greening officer of the GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS) will work to spread more efficient green building technologies, strategies and practices to nearly 10,000 buildings owned or leased by the federal government, ranging from ports to office buildings and courthouses.
The GSA announced the development Monday, along with the news that the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings would move from the Public Buildings Service to the Office of Governmentwide Policy. Established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, it sets policies and standards for building operations, construction and maintenance across the U.S. government's real estate portfolio.
"By making High-Performance Green Buildings part of Governmentwide Policy, GSA can deliver on our commitment to make better performing, greener building standards and operations a federal imperative," Michael Robertson, associate administrator of Governmentwide Policy.
Both developments are a response to President Obama's 2009 executive order for federal agencies to quickly devise plans to reduce their environmental impacts and meet various targets, such as a 30 percent reduction in fleet fuel consumption by 2020.
The GSA announced in late January that it had drafted energy service agreements with 18 companies to reduce its consumption through energy audits, reviews, monitoring and renewable energy.
The GSA also took steps to make the federal fleet more efficient with the purchase of thousands of new vehicles last year using $210 million in stimulus funds. Roughly 6,500 of the vehicles -- a mix of hybrids, flex-fuel and four-cylinders -- are earmarked for the U.S. Postal Service, which operates the country's largest fleet of alternative fuel vehicles.
In 2008, the GSA estimated its purchase of 15,000 seats of power management software would save up to $750,000 annually.
According to its job listing, the GSA's chief greening officer will define the national strategy to make the Public Buildings Service the "most sustainable real estate organization" in the U.S. Until a permanent chief greening officer is named, Scott Conner, director of the Denver Federal Center for GSA's Rocky Mountain region, will temporarily fill the slot.
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