GSA Blog

Green Proving Ground delivers triple win for taxpayers

The federal Green Proving Ground (GPG) program takes advantage of GSA’s substantial real estate portfolio to test innovative building technologies that have the potential to reduce operating costs and help spark market transformation. 

The GPG program now has both momentum and funding, with a boost of $30 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the number of technologies the program will evaluate over the next four years.

That builds on a $10 million overall investment by GSA over the past 7 years in the GPG program – a partnership between GSA and the Department of Energy – to field-test private industry technologies. Under this program, companies provide their technology for use in federally owned buildings and GSA works with third parties to measure their impact.

Almost two years ago, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a report citing how these kinds of technologies could prevent as much as 10 percent of GSA’s greenhouse gas emissions [PDF]. In addition to preventing air pollution, these technologies reduce operating expenses and give energy customers -- like the federal government -- more control over their energy usage.

“Right now, GSA and the entire Administration are making once-in-a-generation investments to address climate change, bolster our economy and infrastructure, enhance security and sustainability, and build a stronger and more prosperous future,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, who sat down with past and current GPG program participants this month in New York City to talk about how to springboard energy-conservation technology beyond incubation and into implementation. 

Sonu Panda, CEO of Prescriptive Data, became a GPG participant in 2018 and attended the roundtable.  Like several other GPG participants, the company uses technology to help save energy and reduce building operating costs. Panda said that being part of the GPG program has helped it test its products at scale and reach new commercial customers.

Another roundtable participant, Legend Power Systems, provides an intelligent energy management platform that corrects and modulates power to a facility, explained the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, Mike Cioce.   

Chief Executive Officer SaLisa Berrien described her company – COI Energy – as an energy-optimization platform that reduces energy waste and cost through artificial intelligence and machine learning. The COI platform can send manual alerts or use supervisory control to reduce energy consumption and demand.

Meanwhile, the approach of Logical Buildings – a smart building software and solutions company – is to “gamify” energy management through its app on customer smartphones, explained CEO Jeff Hendler, whose company is testing that approach at a federally owned facility in New Jersey. 

Kevin Powell, GPG’s Program Director and GSA’s Director of the Center for Emerging Building Technologies, emphasized that the significance of connected building technology equipment is that it can be integrated into building systems and operated using a single platform for building operations.

“The GPG program is one way we’re creating the technical foundation for long-term, transformational changes,” Carnahan said. “We’re aiming for a triple win: more good American jobs, cost savings to taxpayers from reduced energy consumption and a healthier future for all Americans.”