Sustainability means strong finances, a clean environment, and healthy employees and communities. At GSA, sustainability is helping federal agencies meet their missions today, without sacrificing their ability to serve future generations.
With over 9600 federal assets under management, GSA paves the way in sustainable buildings for the government and private sector. From net-zero design, to green building certifications, to green roofs and advanced building technologies, we are proving every day that healthy and productive workplaces, a smaller environmental footprint, and reduced costs go hand in hand.
Awards & Certifications
Explore our properties that have received building certifications and awards.
GSA Proving Ground
GSA Proving Ground evaluates pre- and early-commercial stage building technologies, accelerating the transition from bench-scale technology to commercial viability.
NetZero Design
By 2020, all new GSA buildings will be designed to achieve “net zero” energy, water and/or waste. Explore GSA and external resources related to net-zero design.
SFTool
SFTool shows you how to build, buy and operate green. Visit SFTool.gov, created by the GSA Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings.
Green Roofs
Green roofs slow stormwater runoff, provide excellent insulation, and reduce the “urban heat island” effect. Tour GSA’s extensive inventory of green roofs, including some of the largest in the U.S.
Sustainable Building Program Offices
A number of GSA program offices contribute to our buildings work, including:
GSA acquisition solutions include a full menu of green products and sustainable services— helping agencies save time and money, while meeting sustainability and mission requirements.
Green Procurement Compilation
Use the Green Purchasing Compilation on SFTool.gov to identify federal green purchasing requirements, review sample solicitation language, and learn where to buy compliant products. Agencies can create custom pages with shortcuts to frequently used products.
Buy Green Services
GSA works with service contractors of all types to incorporate green products and practices into their offerings. We also offer a wide array of solutions to directly address environmental issues, such as waste management and energy metering services.
Buy Green Products
GSA helps customer agencies meet environmental requirements by offering thousands of green products through GSA Advantage’s Environment Aisle and GSA Global Supply.
Green IT
Achieve your agency’s electronics stewardship goals with GSA’s offerings of electronic and telecommunications products and services that save energy, reduce e-waste, and optimize performance.
GSA manages over 200,000 vehicles on behalf of over 50 Federal agencies — the second largest non-tactical fleet in the US Government. From alternative fuels, to electric vehicles, to car sharing, GSA is leading the way in Federal fleet innovation.
Buy Green Vehicles
GSA Fleet offers thousands of low-cost, high-efficiency vehicle options to help Federal agencies meet their missions sustainably.
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Selection
GSA offers more than 1,500 models of alternative fuel vehicles with a variety of fueling systems, from hybrid sedans to bi-fuel CNG pickup trucks.
Electric Vehicle Pilots
GSA has incorporated over 300 all-electric vehicles and 169 charging stations (and counting) into Federal fleets.
Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Resources
Learn more about AFVs and download GSA’s AFV Acquisition Tool to compare AFV options by size, price, fuel, availability, CO2 grams per mile, and lifetime GHG emissions.
Short Term Rental Program
GSA helps agencies reduce their fleet size, increase utilization, and simplify procurement with cost-effective short term rental solutions.
Car Sharing Pilot Programs
GSA is testing car-sharing technologies and services to determine their effectiveness in the Federal fleet context.
GSA is creating a 21st century workplace to support wellness, drive down costs, and increase productivity. We help other agencies create a new model of the federal workplace.
Total Workplace
Total Workplace is GSA’s integrated approach to sustainable design, flexible workspace, and office technology. To date, Total Workplace has helped agencies save over $70 million while reducing space, cutting carbon, and supporting productivity.
Fitwel
How can a building promote health and wellness? We are partnering with New York City’s Health Department and Active Design Program, and the US Health and Human Services to develop FITWEL, a voluntary building certification program designed to promote wellness through design, air quality, healthy food options, and exercise opportunities.
Telework
A successful telework strategy allows employees to work productively away from the traditional office. Learn about GSA’s telework projects and see how they can apply to your agency’s workforce.
Case Studies
Visit SFTool.gov to learn how GSA offices across the country have designed workplaces to foster community, comfort, health, and a sense of place.
GSA works together with industry partners and other agencies to translate sustainability policy into action.
Greening the Supply Chain
Executive Order 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade, requires agencies to work with suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Adopting commercial practices for managing supply chain emissions through supplier engagement can encourage efficiency and reduce costs and risks for agencies and industry alike.
Green Building Advisory Committee
The GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings established the Green Building Advisory Committee (GBAC) to provide them with advice and recommendations. GBAC’s membership reflects a broad range of stakeholders including senior officials from federal agencies as well as leading green building experts from state, local, private, non-governmental, and academic sectors.
Green Buildings Certification System Review
Every five years, GSA evaluates green building certification programs to determine the system(s) to be used across the federal government. To make this evaluation, GSA includes input from agencies, the public, and the private sector. The most recent review was completed in 2012. GSA continues to solicit input through the next review cycle in 2017.
Electronics Stewardship
USPS Blue Earth Program
A group of federal recycling programs, USPS BlueEarth is coordinated by the US Postal Service® to support sustainability initiatives. These initiatives assist in helping federal agencies and their employees properly dispose of items like empty ink cartridges and unwanted small electronics.
Executive Orders and Statutes:
Executive Order 13693
Visit the SFTool.gov enriched version of the executive order, which includes “hot annotations” such as elaborations on policy, explanatory texts, and links to resources.
At GSA, transparency is an important value and a key component of our sustainability initiatives. GSA measures and reports on sustainability as directed by the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Office of Federal Sustainability and Executive Order 13834.
Sustainability Measures
GSA tracks and reports progress on sustainability measures to the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program, as required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
Agency progress is summarized in GSA’s latest Scorecard on Efficient Federal Operations.
The Office of Federal Sustainability also publishes GSA’s historical progress on the following measures:
- Building Energy Intensity
- Potable Water Intensity
- Renewable Electricity Use
- Investment in Facility Efficiency Improvements
- High Performance Sustainable Buildings
- Fleet Petroleum Reduction and Alternative Fuel
- Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Sustainability and Climate Change Risk Management Plans
- Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan FY 2016 [PDF - 6 MB] [DOCX - 3 MB]
- Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan FY 2015 [PDF - 1 MB] [DOCX - 666 KB]
- Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan FY 2014 [PDF - 2 MB] [DOCX - 950 KB]
Climate Change Risk Management Plan
- Climate Change Risk Management Plan FY 2014 (with Progress Updates as of March 2015) [PDF - 3 MB]
Kevin Kampschroer
Chief Sustainability Officer
Contact: sustainability@gsa.gov
Official website of the U.S. Government